The
Directorate of Trade at the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration
and Employment on Wednesday convened a one-day validation workshop of the
Gambia’s Draft Schedule of Specific Commitments for AfCFTA Trade in Service
Negotiations held at a local hotel in Senegambia.
The
validation is part of the preparation for the African Continental Free Trade
Area (AfCTA) Trade in services negotiation; the ECOWAS Member States are
working to submit a common schedule of specific commitments to the AU for
negotiations with other African countries. The Gambia’s Schedule of Specific
commitment draft report is ready for validation.
The
objective of the validation is to review and update the draft report of
Gambia’s Specific Schedule of Commitments for submission to the ECOWAS
Commission.
Speaking
at the validation session, Mr. Abdoulie Jammeh, deputy permanent secretary at
the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment (MoTIE)
said the aim of the validation workshop was to review the draft report on AFCTA
Trade in Service Negotiation.
He
pointed out that African Union Member States are negotiating to establish AFCTA
in trade in service negotiation, noting that almost all African countries have
signed and The Gambia has ratified the AFCTA agreement on free trade; members
have agreed that 90% of the products should be liberalised.
“In
the area of trade in service negotiations to liberalise; five sectors have been
identified. This decision is made to strengthen the implementation of the
AFCTA, in areas such as transport, tourism, business sector, financial sector
and communication,” he said.
He noted that at the level of ECOWAS, they
have to agree as a bloc, no country will be unilateral to change the tariff as
a bloc. When we all have external service it will be easier to liberalise.
