Africa leaders told to fight for more $70bn annual global trade share

Trump, left, and main trade foe, China President Xi Jinping

The world, especially in the area of trade, is no longer the same since Donald Trump became America’s President.

A businessman previously, Trump was dissatisfied with the trade deals he met on ground for America and he has been tearing them up and renegotiating them to favour America better.

So while Trump is doing his best to make America better trade wise, the same cannot be said of Africa’s leaders who don’t seem to realize that they should follow Trump’s steps in trade.

And since they don’t know what to do, they’ve been adviced at the 13^th African Economic Conference, Kigali, Rwanda to fight more share of the global trade as a simple increase of Africa’s global trade share from 2% to 3% will earn Africa the additional income of $70bn.

To this end, conference participants called for African countries to leverage the full range of their strengths and resources to accelerate the region’s drive towards continental integration.

Themed Regional and Continental Integration for Africa’s Development, the 2018 AEC, jointly organized by the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and the African Development Bank follows the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) 8 months ago in Kigali.

Speaking during the opening ceremony, Claudine Uwera, Rwanda’s Minister of State, Economic Planning, said, “Africa's integration is no longer a choice. It's a must for the continent and its people. To become the global player that it deserves to be, Africa should integrate speedily.”

Experts agree that a self-reliant approach that emphasizes intra-African trade, would not only help deepen regional economic integration, but contribute significantly to sustainable economic growth, job creation, poverty reduction, and inflow of foreign direct investment.

The AfCTA signed in March 2018 by 44 countries is seen as the most ambitious effort to form what has the potential to be the world’s biggest free trade agreement which aims to create a single continental market of goods and services with free movement of business persons and investments across Africa.

Estimates are that if Africa were to increase its share of global trade from 2 to 3%, the one percentage point increase would result in an annual additional income of about $70bn.

Ahunna Eziakonwa, UNDP Regional Director for Africa, observed that “African countries need to collaborate more effectively in devising public policies that can create skills, foster innovation and technological advancement, facilitate labour mobility and access to productive assets including land and finance.”

Also speaking on the urgent need to ratify the AfCFTA, Giovanie Biha, Deputy Executive Secretary, ECA, said, “It’s time to ratify AfCFTA. The more ambitious the liberalization, the higher will be the gains in terms of increase in GDP and exports.”