The Mozambican government wants the private sector to have control over the agreement and protocols of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA), in order to ensure competitiveness with companies from other member countries and attract investment.
The Government of Mozambique recently approved the resolution approving the national strategy for implementing the agreement that creates the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The agreement will, among other aspects, make Mozambique part of the Guided Intra-African Trade initiative for Goods, which aims to create real opportunities in Africa, through economic operators from countries that have already submitted their tariff offers and that already carry out commercial transactions in the following product value chains: ceramic tiles, batteries, vegetables, avocados, flowers, pharmaceuticals, palm oil, tea, rubber and air conditioning components.
This Tuesday, 150 delegates from African states attended the AfCTA’s 18th Meeting of Senior Trade Officials in Maputo to assess the protocols for trade carried out by women and young people and digital trade.
“This meeting was aimed at fine-tuning some of the documents of these agreements and, fortunately, we had the opportunity to host it. It also served to show the level of development that the country has and what our expectations are regarding the implementation of this agreement,” said Minister of Industry and Commerce, Silvino Moreno.
Minister Moreno said that Mozambique could only benefit from being a member of the group.
“We are talking about a market with around 1.4 billion consumers. When you are part of this agreement, products from Mozambique can be exported to any African country without any restrictions.
This is a great opportunity, not only for companies, but also for the population. Our agricultural, fishing and manufactured products can have access to a larger market than they have now,” Moreno explained.
The Minister of Industry and Trade also highlighted that agreement’s role as a catalyst for attracting investment.
“Large global companies can set up their factories in Mozambique and easily access the wider African market, compared to our small market of only around 30 million inhabitants,” he observed.
With the tariff offer already submitted to the group about a month ago, the government expects Mozambique to become a full member by September 2025, which is why it is appealing to the private sector.
“We are doing everything we can to ensure that the private sector is aware of the rules and understands what the agreement says, as well as the content of the protocol, in order to be on the same level as the private sectors of other countries,” Minister Moreno explained.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has the potential to bring significant economic and social gains to the region, leading to higher incomes, less poverty and faster economic growth.
If fully implemented to harmonise investment and competition rules, the trade deal could boost regional incomes by up to 9 per cent, to $571 billion. It could create nearly 18 million additional jobs, many of which would be better paid and of better quality, with women workers reaping the biggest gains. By 2035, the resulting employment and income growth could help lift up to 50 million people out of extreme poverty.
Implementation of the trade deal would also lead to larger wage gains for women and skilled workers. Women’s wages are expected to be 11.2 per cent higher in 2035 compared to the wage level without the deal, outpacing the 9.8 per cent growth in male workers’ wages.
O País
