At the PTA Bank’s 29 th Annual General Meeting in Addis Ababa, the deputy executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Abdalla Hamdok, said the share of intra-African trade “could more than double within the next ten years if the Continental Free Trade Area is implemented by 2017, along with improvement of customs procedures, port handling and inland transport.”
Speaking at a roundtable on priorities and interventions to accelerate intra-regional trade and infrastructure in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (Comesa), the East African Community (EAC), and the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc),Hamdok said that combined, the 26 countries that comprise this tripartite area have a population of 527 million and a gross domestic product (GDP) of $624 billion.
“Together, they contribute to nearly 60 percent of the GDP of all African Union member States,” stated Hamdok.
He reflected on a number of challenges faced by the three regional economic communities, stating that trade between the tripartite and the rest of Africa is incredibly marginal.
