Expert:New course of trade invigorates Egypt’s ties with Africa

Economic expert Dr. Ra'ouf Gaafar described the prospects for the future of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement under the coronavirus circumstances

Economic expert Dr. Ra'ouf Gaafar described the prospects for the future of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement under the coronavirus circumstances, saying that Egypt has started a very clear policy to strengthen ties with Africa and increase trade between Egypt and all African countries. Egypt is always trying to establish peace, security and stability in Africa, he reassured, as there cannot be any commercial activity without peace.

Over the phone to (Africa Today), he regretted that since COVID19, everything had taken more time than expected but still we are moving forward despite the pandemic and despite any obstacles to guarantee a full integration of the African countries.

He added that data showed that the Egyptian exports to Africa are to double over the coming four years, if all the AfCFTA stages are fully rolled out. The pace of implementing the deal would be reasonable as the doubling is an ambitious goal and Egypt had the capacity to exceed exports more and more. We have the tools to make it, the expert elaborated, once the pandemic is defeated and our trade would triple or quadruple over the next few years.

Dr. Gaafar knows that the challenges face the AfCFTA as African trade represents 3% of the global trade while the trade within Africa only accounts for 8% of the total African trade with external markets. He said the reasons for such small percentages are that the foreign countries used to be present in most of the African countries for a long time so most of the trade is linked to those countries. This will change under the new umbrella of the African Union, he added, when the exploitation of the resources in Africa is implemented with expertise existing in the continent and thus integration is executed, and the 3% would be much more higher and the 8% with the foreign states will diminish.

He believes that the African trade with the external markets can be increased through our resources: raw materials will not be exported until after industrialization, products will be sold either semi-finished or finished so we have to add value to the exported products.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement entered into force on 30 May 2019 for the 24 countries that had deposited their instruments of ratification with the African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson. It is a framework agreement covering Trade in Goods and Services, Investment, Intellectual Property Rights and Competition Policy.

(Africa Today) is aired daily. This episode is presented by Mahesty Rabei.