Liberia Hosts ECOWAS W’shop

By Bill W. Cooper

The government of Liberia through the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with its partners yesterday, held a one day workshop on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) aimed at promoting Trade in West Africa and improving the efficient movement of goods in the ECOWAS region.

The workshop which took place at the Boulevard Palace Hotel in Monrovia, witnessed the presence of the Assistant Minister of Commerce for Trade Service at the Ministry of Commerce, Peter D. Somah, ECOWAS Ambassador to Liberia, Tunde Ajisomo, GIZ Project Director, Ulrich Thuer among others.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, ECOWAS Ambassador to Liberia, Tunde Ajisomo said that march 21, 2019 marked exactly a year since the historic signature of the soon-to-be the world’s largest trade area (AfCFTA) agreement, adding that not only for the 15 member states of ECOPWAS region but for all the African countries in the AfCFTA.

He indicated that 44 of 55 African countries have signed the AfCFTA agreement, which he said they have made progress since then, stressing that it is encouraging to note that the signature have risen to 54, with the remainder of only the state of Eritrea that is yet to sign the agreement.

“For the ECOWAS region, all 15 Member states have signed the AfCFTA agreement and10 out of 27 ratification so far of our member states have also ratified the agreement. We have urged our member states, including the Republic of Liberia, yet to rectify the agreement to do so to ensure the preservation of the ECOWAS acquis and that the AfCFTA is coherent with regional advancements made so far,” the ECOWAS Ambassador added.

According to Ambassador Ajisomo, the creation of a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business people and investments, would help in no small measures to bring deeper integration and turn the 55 single African economies into a more coherent, larger single market.

He added that the larger and more viable economic space would allow African markets to function better and promote competition, as well as resolve the challenges of multiple and overlapping Regional Economic Communities (RECs), thereby helping to boost intra continental trade.

“The sheer size of the single market would provide a more conductive environment for industrial diversification and regional complementarities than what is viable under exiting individual country approaches to development or Regional Economic Communities (RECs). The United Nations Economic Commission doe African (UNECA) calculates that the AfCFTA could increase intra African trade by as much a 35 billion per year or 52 percent above the baseline, by 2022,” Ajisomo alluded.

Ambassador Ajisomo then lauded the Minister of Trade and Chief Trade Negotiator of the AfCFTA for defending the interest of Liberia, which he said deserved a round of applause.

For his part, the Assistant Minister of Commerce for Trade Service at the Ministry of Commerce, Peter D. Somah, lauded Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the European Union who funded the project, as well as the GIZ and the World Bank Group including the ECOWAS for the implementation, stressing that the country is one of the newest to the project since 2016.