Kgafela engages on AfCFTA

Trade and Investment minister, Mmusi Kgafela is in Accra, Ghana attending the 10th meeting of the African Continental Free Trade Area’s (AfCFTA) Council of Trade Ministers. In a statement on Tuesday, local trade ministry officials said the meeting is being held to consider the AfCFTA’s Report of the 12th Meeting of the Committee of Senior Trade Officials and witness the Guided Trade Initiative. Kgafela is accompanied by the ministry’s chief negotiator, Phadza Butale. Kgafela and Butale’s trip comes as the country continues negotiations required for it to formally ratify the continent-wide trade deal. Botswana is one of 13 countries left on the continent that are yet to ratify the AfCFTA deal sealed by other countries in 2018 in Rwanda. While Botswana signed the text of the 2018 agreement together with the majority of the continent, the country is still negotiating the final terms of how it wants to trade with Africa under the AfCFTA. Butale previously said the outstanding issues were negotiations over trade in goods, rules of origin, and trade in services. In February, trade officials said they expected a final deal to be agreed upon “within months”. The trade talks are critically sensitive for Botswana which has to balance the need for market access, with the risk of cheaper imports drowning out the country’s weak manufacturing sector.