The Tunisian strategy for the implementation of the agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), developed by the Ministry of Trade and Export Development, with the support of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) will be presented and validated on December 16, 2021, in Tunis, economist at the ECA office for North Africa Aziz Jaid announced Thursday.

Speaking at the ad hoc meeting of experts on the theme “Unlocking the potential of regional value chains in North Africa: Focus on the pharmaceutical and digital finance sectors”, organised on November 24 and 25, 2021, in Marrakech, he recalled that the Economic Commission for Africa, works to technically support North African countries in the development of their national strategy to help them seize the opportunities offered by this free trade area.

Tunisia had ratified, on July 22, 2020, the convention relating to the AfCFTA, which aims to create the largest free trade area in the world with the potential to bring together more than 1.2 billion people with a GDP of more than 2.5 trillion dollars and to usher in a new era of development for the continent.

The agreement has the potential to generate a range of benefits through economies of scale, trade expansion, structural transformation, productive employment and poverty reduction.

According to ECA experts, the AfCFTA can help the continent reduce the impact of the pandemic and accelerate its economic recovery by reducing continental market fragmentation, developing African value chains and creating the conditions for economic diversification.

The establishment of the AfCFTA would also offer businesses, including SMEs, which have been particularly affected by COVID-19, the opportunity to access new supply and sales markets, particularly online.

Source: Tap News Agency