Roundup: AU summit launches continental FTA talks, overshadowed by presence of Sudanese leader

African Union (AU) leaders on Tuesday wrapped up their biannual summit after endorsing a 10-year implementation plan for the continent's long-term development vision.

Dubbed "Agenda 2063," the vision paints a desired picture of integrated, prosperous, and peaceful Africa. The first 10-year implementation plan is committed to facilitating free movements of goods, services, and people while calling for regional investments in value chains and for promoting "Made in Africa" products.

As a measure to tackle trade protectionism, the AU launched its Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) negotiations, seeking to establish free movement of goods and services among African states.

The AU has set 2017 as the time for the implementation of CFTA, under which African states are expected to reduce trade barriers among themselves by drastically reducing export and import duties and waiving visa requirements in some cases.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, the chair of the AU, hailed the start of CFTA negotiations.

The CFTA negotiations came just days after the signing of a Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (TFTA) that covers more than 650 million people in 26 countries with combined gross domestic product amounting to 60 percent of Africa's total. TFTA will become effective once parliaments had adopted it.

"It (the launch of TFTA) was a 'major turning point' for Africa," said Donald Kaberuka, outgoing president of the African Development Bank.

For TFTA to become successful, Kaberuka said all non-tariff barriers must be removed while free movement of business people and bona fide travelers must be ensured.

Apart from CFTA, Mugabe said the leaders would soon implement some flagship projects of the 10-year plan such as the high-speed train, the African Center for Disease Control and the Pan-African University.

But this year's summit was overshadowed by the participation of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity.

Host country South Africa, being a signatory to the Roman Statute, has an obligation to arrest him and hand him over to the ICC who issued an arrest warrant for South Africa to detain al-Bashir while he was attending the AU summit.

Al-Bashir left South Africa earlier Monday, hours before the end of the summit, without any incident.

His presence became the focus of attention at the summit.

South Africa has been under fire for not arresting al-Bashir in defiance of the ICC's arrest warrant.

But AU Commission Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a South African, defended the decision to invite al-Bashir to the summit.

"Sudan is a member of the AU and has always attended AU summits," Dlamini-Zuma told a post-summit press conference.

"This is an AU venue, not a South African venue," she argued.

Al-Bashir has attended AU summits and will continue to do so wherever such summits take place, Dlamini-Zuma stressed.

The AU does things according to its own rules, not according to the rules of the ICC, Dlamini-Zuma said.

Mugabe echoed her view, saying "here is not the ICC headquarters."

The Rome Statute, which created the ICC, was not signed by the AU but by individual countries, Mugabe said. Endi