Dakar, 1is Oct (APS) – Technical staff from West African private sector organizations have begun a three-day training on non-tariff barriers, standards, quality and certification within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The training is provided to them at the initiative of the Regional Consular Chamber of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (CCR-UEMOA) and the European Union’s technical assistance program to countries contributing to the AfCFTA.
The beneficiaries of the training are executives responsible for standardization, quality, certification and accreditation issues in private sector organizations in the eight UEMOA member states.
The CCR-UEMOA and the European Union say they want, with this training, to strengthen the capacities of beneficiaries in terms of non-tariff barriers, technical obstacles to trade, etc.
”The private sector is called upon to play an important role to enable States to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the AfCFTA, which will only work if economic operators appropriate it,” said Ansou Badji, an official of the AfCFTA. Senegalese Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Aïssa Kabo Sidikou, the UEMOA representative in Senegal
The benefits of the AfCFTA ”could increase African exports by 95% by offering the possibility of lifting 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035,” said Mr. Badji based on AfCFTA data. World Bank.
He spoke of the opportunity for the constituent countries of the African free trade area to “guarantee the availability of quality products and […] to eliminate non-tariff barriers.
These barriers and the lack of trade infrastructure are among the main causes of the “weakness” of intra-African trade, according to Ansou Badji.
Africa has been trying to implement its continental free trade area since January 1, 2021.
”This is an invaluable opportunity to boost trade [africain et] facilitate access of African economies to the international market,” declared Aïssa Kabo Sidikou, the UEMOA representative in Senegal.
The UEMOA Commission and the CCR-UEMOA have adopted a common strategy, with the aim of helping the private sector to play a “vanguard” role in the construction of the AfCFTA, according to her.
MFD/ESF/OID
