Roundup: Africa urges support for enlarged free trade area at UN talks

African trade ministers urged the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Tuesday to support governments' efforts to access funds for trade and the negotiations toward the creation of an African Continental Free Trade Agreement Area (CFTA).

South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said African countries needed the involvement of international financial organizations, notably the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and other regional banks, to invest in funding manufacturing ventures to enable Africa to produce more for export.

Insisting the engagement of African countries in the world trade depended mostly on the ability of the continent to trade in manufactured products, Davies called for steps to be taken to ensure that countries improve on their local produce, moving away from exporting raw materials alone.

"Which African country is the most integrated in the global economy? It is the country which sells value added products. We need to industrialize and diversify our economies," Davies told a ministerial debate on transforming economies for sustainable and inclusive growth in Nairobi Tuesday.

African Union (AU) Summit called for the creation of a CFTA by 2017 to enable African countries double their cross-border trade and investment as a first step toward enhancing regional integration.

The plan toward the creation of the CFTA was to unify all regional economic blocs and negotiate toward a continental trade body with 54 states and a Gross Domestic Product of 3.4 trillion U.S. dollars.

Davies said providing affordable sources of finance for manufacturing and other industrial undertakings were critical for the survival of African industries in a globalized trade environment.

"We need to create large continental markets to support industrial markets and support our own industrialization," Davies said, referring to the need for the creation of the CFTA.

The South African minister said the role of the development finance banks was important to the participation of the African countries in the global economy.

To support the plan, the South African minister called on countries to consider a new code of conduct for all the multinational firms operating in their countries.

The proposal includes the negotiation of a Multilateral Investment Agreement, which would include binding commitments by the multinational firms operating in Africa and other poor countries, to commit to a number of practices, including non-tax avoidance and provision of local support local farmers.

Nigerian Trade Minister Okechukwu Enelamah, said African countries required policies to engineer domestic economic growth, a key requirement for the growth and reduction of poverty locally.

"We must carry out structural reforms. Growth is engineered through programs. We need to move towards the implementation of these agreements," the Nigerian minister said, calling on the UNCTAD to support the implementation of deals agreed at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

African countries are more passionate about the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) agreed with the other members of the WTO during the last WTO ministerial conference in Nairobi. Endit