CUTS int’l, GIZ organise public private dialogue on AfCFTA

 A Public-Private Dialogue on the Guided Trade Initiative under the African Con­tinental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has been held in Accra.

The dialogue initiative is one in a series of dialogues that was being organised to assess some of the complementary initiatives that have been launched to promote the op­erationalisation and implementation of the AfCFTA.

The dialogue is being organised by GIZ Programme Support to AfCFTA through CUTS Interna­tional to diagnose the Guided Trade Initiative (GTI) and also to identify gaps and suggest measures needed to address those gaps.

The Head of Division-Rules of Origin, AfCFTA Secretariat, Mr Didier Bronyeme, called for a com­mitted public private partnership to enable the African trade among themselves without any challenges.

“We need customs commitment, support from all Africans to make it possible to achieve a successful result when it comes to trade,” he said.

He said there was the need to put AfCFTA in focus through dialogues to bring out structured diagnosis of problems, knowledge sharing on best practices and success stories whilst providing the much-needed feedback and recommendations to policy makers.

This, he said would enable duty bearers to help provide the needed accelerated implemen­tation of the AfCFTA.

The West African Re­gional Director, CUTS, Mr Appiah Kusi Adomako said the objective of the trade initiative is to ensure that AfCFTA Is truly operational and the gains from the initiative are improved implementation.

This, he said would help achieve an increased inter-re­gional end intra-Africa trade that would yield economic development for the betterment of the continent at large.

According to Mr Adomako, it’s also seeks to engage relevant stake­holders to review or take stock of the GTI with the express purpose of shaping the initiative towards a full implementation of the Af­CFTA.

“The overall objective of the dialogue is to review the GTI in line with the success stories, the challenges involved and the way forward as year 2023 has been declared “Acceleration of AfCFTA Implementation,” he said.

He said the dialogue would enable stakeholders to examine the efficiency of the legal framework of the AfCFTA instruments and also exchange of different perspectives to identify the obstacles faced by the Ghanaian private sector as far as the GTI was concerned.

“This initiative would help Identify possible future interven­tions to increase intra-African trade and maximise the benefits of the AfCFTA and examine the readiness of the private sector to participate in trade under the AfCFTA,” he said.

 BY AGNES OPOKU SARPONG