The Committee of Experts of the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development have applauded Ethiopia for the ratification of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Ethiopia got the commendation at the 38th meeting of committee during a plenary debate in which the AfCFTA was given prime focus.
News that Ethiopia’s House of People’s Representative had become the 21st legislative body to ratify the agreement on the AfCFTA .
The meeting was the 1st anniversary of the signing of the agreement by many African countries in Kigali – Rwanda (this occurred on 21 st March 2018).
The action of the Ethiopian parliament, now leaves room for just one more country to ratify the AfCFTA for it to become operational.
Coincidentally, the support ECA gave to the African Union and member states in formulating, negotiating for, and adhering to the agreement, was widely accepted as one of the Commission’s major achievements in the period under review.
After keenly following a report by ECA’s Executive Secretary on the activities of the Commission since its 51st session in Addis Ababa last year, representatives from several countries enjoined ECA to accompany their countries to fully appropriate the continental trade arrangement so as to benefit from it.
Mr. Stephen Karingi, Director of the Regional Integration and Trade Division and Ms. Eskedar Nega, Chief of Evaluation at ECA, assured the delegates that the Commission was already accompanying 15 countries in drawing up their AfCFTA strategies and that this support would be extended to other countries on a request basis.
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