The Minister for Trade and Industry Alan Kyerematen has disclosed that exporters in Ghana would by the end of this year be able to export their goods freely across Africa following the completion of the Africa Free Trade Zone policy.
According to the minister, the policy, under the continental free trade will grant exporters duty and quota free access to any African country.
“Hopefully by the end of 2017, Africa is going to become a free trade zone which is under the framework of the continental free trade area. It does mean that by the end of 2017 hopefully, you can export duty-free, quota-free to any country in Africa,” he explained.
Mr. Kyerematen told Citi Business News that the move will render exporters more competitive on the global market.
“So we are just not focusing on ECOWAS, you talking about exporting to any part of the continent, so can you imagine that if we as a government can support them to become more competitive, to be able to expand their export business to the rest of Africa. That is very good business for government and also for the company,” he noted.
Exporters have often complained about the huge amounts they pay on goods at the various borders.
About the Continental Free Trade Area
The Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) negotiations was launched by the AU leaders in June 2015 in Johannesburg.
Once in place, the free trade area will cover more than a billion people with a continental GDP of over US$ 3 trillion.
Successful implementation of the CFTA will enable members to realize their potential to expand and accelerate the dynamism of intra-African trade, including the declared objective of increasing trade by 50 percent among African countries by 2022.
Intra-African trade today averages 16 percent, compared to 70 percent for Europe, 50 percent for Asia or 21 percent for Latin America.
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