ECA undertakes to strengthen trade capacity and training within ECOWAS and EAC
ECA Press Release No. 05/2010
Addis Ababa, 29 January (ECA) - The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) today in Addis Ababa signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) and the East African Community (EAC) to collaborate in strengthening intra-Africa trade and promote development in the subregions.
The MoU was signed at the headquarters of ECA by the Commission’s Executive Secretary, Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, the Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, Mohammed Ibn Chambas and the Deputy Secretary General of the East African Community, Ms. Beatrice Birungi Kiraso.
The three parties agreed to strengthen capacity building and training on trade issues, assist in building consensus among
the member states of the regional economic communities, promote trade facilitation and the development of trade corridors.
The MoU also deals with the provision of equipment and tools for trade policy analysis, information dissemination on trade issues and mainstreaming of crosscutting issues of gender, environment and HIV/AIDS in trade policy development at the levels of the sub-region and the member States.
In a remark during the signing ceremony, Mr. Janneh said it was important for African countries to go beyond Doha issues and focus more on improving and increasing intra-African trade.
He said the MoU would assist ECA to strengthen its relationship with the RECs in the framework of the African Trade Policy Centre, ECA’s flagship project headquartered in Geneva.
Intra-African trade in West Africa is currently less than 15 percent, said Mr. Chambas, who said the challenge within ECOWAS was to bring up the number to about 60 per cent.
He said the main thrust of ECOWAS work was around cooperation in trade. “One of the first protocols signed within ECOWAS pertains to the movement of goods and services,” he said adding that ECOWAS would count on ECA to further build its capacity.
Mr. Chambas pledged that ECOWAS would do its best to strenuously implement the MoU: “The sweetness of this MoU will be in its implementation,” he said
In her remark on behalf of EAC, Ms. Kiraso said that volume of trade between EAC members had tripled, and that the tripartite agreement between EAC, COMESA and SADC was working well.
She said the Community was far ahead in its bid to attain a free trade area and that the MoU would assist it in deepening integration in the Community.
EAC is the regional intergovernmental organisation of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Republic of Rwanda and Burundi with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
ECOWAS consists of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote D’ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
Issued by the ECA Information and Communication Service P.O. Box 3001
Addis Ababa Ethiopia
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