Business / International
Africa creates Cape to Cairo free-trade zone
10 Jun 2015 at 14:43hrs | Views
Africa's largest free-trade zone is to be created, covering 26 countries in an area from Cape Town in the south to Cairo in the north.
The deal, signed in Egypt, is intended to ease the movement of goods across member countries which represent more than half the continent's GDP.
Three existing trade blocs - the Southern African Development Community (Sadc); the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) - are to to be united into a single new zone.
The pact - known as the The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) - will then be officially unveiled at the upcoming summit of the African Union this weekend in South Africa.
However, concluding the deal in Egypt will merely be the first step and it will need to be approved by each country's parliament, before the wheels are set in motion, she says.
It is hoped that this will happen by 2017.
The deal, signed in Egypt, is intended to ease the movement of goods across member countries which represent more than half the continent's GDP.
Three existing trade blocs - the Southern African Development Community (Sadc); the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) - are to to be united into a single new zone.
The pact - known as the The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) - will then be officially unveiled at the upcoming summit of the African Union this weekend in South Africa.
However, concluding the deal in Egypt will merely be the first step and it will need to be approved by each country's parliament, before the wheels are set in motion, she says.
It is hoped that this will happen by 2017.
Source - BBC
