AU Tasks ARSO Strategies to Achieve Free Trade in 2017

All hands appear to be on deck to ensure that the mandate set by African Union Commission (AUC) for the 54-Member African Countries to attain a common market, Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) by 2017 would be realised.

African representatives were upbeat during the week that with the high level of collaborations so far, the CFTA dream would be realisable by the targeted year.

The African Commission’s 52nd ARSO Council Meeting is holding in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with the theme, “The Role of Standards in Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Africa.”

Part of the meeting agenda is to review the progress made so far and firm up commitments to the programme approved by African Ministers of Trade in 2012.

Head, Trade Division of the Commission, Mr. Nadir Merah, who welcomed delegates on behalf of the Chairperson, H.E, Dr. Nkosazana Zuma, to the Conference, said Africa was close to realising the lofty dream given the rate of collaboration and cooperation among the ARSO members.

“We see a clear role that standards can play in boosting intra-African trade, promoting sustainable agriculture and food security in Africa. By working together on standards, we will promote continental trade integration and facilitate access to African markets.

“I would like to recall the historic 2012 Summit Decision on Boosting Intra African Trade. Our leaders, determined to trade Africa out of poverty and to chart a new forward for our future, adopted an Action Plan on Areas that must be addressed if Africa is to trade more with itself. The Summit also agreed to establish a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) by an indicative date of 2017,” Mr. Merah said.

He decried that Intra-African trade currently at about five per cent drains the continent’s little external reserves to compound the poverty and dependence levels. With the AU Ministerial policy, however, intra-African trade will hit 10 per cent by 2017 and reach 20 per cent by 2020. In particular, Africa is targeting her abundant foods and ensures that the continent feeds itself which has been difficult simply on account of ensuring quality standards.

President of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), and also the Director General, standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr. Joseph Odumodu

said that the organisation would ensure that there are value addition to most of the commodities the continent trade on.

According to him, the predicament of the region over the year was the export raw materials and poor quality food products, which have indeed made Africa laying prostrate in international trade.

Odumodu emphasised that the AU Ministerial Council, declaration for ed 2017 as Africa’s Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) as a programme was feasible.

He explained that ARSO was working round the clock to ensure that standards plays a role in bring the programme to reality.

Odumodu, the Chief of the umbrella body of African countries standards bodies, ARSO has declared that for the continent to meet the ever rising demand for food products, it must pay serious and urgent attention to adopting the effective use of standards to improve its agricultural sector.

“We see a clear role that standards can play in boosting intra-African trade, promoting sustainable agriculture and food security in Africa. By working together on standards, we will promote continental trade integration and facilitate access to African markets, he said

Odumodu said adopting good standardisation and conformity assessment regimes will lead to creation of new cost-efficient technologies in postharvest processing and storage that adds value to agricultural products, improve product safety, and avoid harvest glut and spoilage, leading to a more efficient and fair market chains that improve product marketability by extending the marketing season, reduce losses through transportation, while addressing demands for quality and safety attributes.

According to him, adoption of standards will also help in developing robust agricultural value chains for diversified commodities that will reduce vulnerability and mitigate the effects of fluctuating commodity prices.

`”Maintaining that standards and conformity assessment procedures will ensure private and commercial consumer protection against inaccurate results of measurements in agricultural trade while safeguarding fair competition especially for small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises,” he said

Odumodu urged the ARSO members to commence implementation of standards that the region already have in common.

On her part, the Director General of Ethiopian Standards Agency (ESA), Mrs. Almaz Kahsay stated: “As you know standards mean not only technical words. Directly and indirectly, standards mean economy, standards mean social and standards mean political affairs. So, we are shouldering high responsibility in developing, harmonising and implementing standards.”