Egypt participates in Monday fresh round of Africa free-trade zone talks

Egypt will take part in the new round of negotiations on Monday regarding the creation of the African Free-Trade Zone (AFTZ), in Addis Ababa, its investment minister Tarek Qabil said Saturday.

Establishing an African Free-Trade Zone aims to boost the volume of intra-trade as well as joint investments between 26 countries in an area from Cape Town to Cairo with a GDP of an estimated US$624 billion (£382.9 billion).

The agreement to merge Africa’s three giant economic blocks namely the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC).

In the side lines of “Africa 2016: Business for Africa, Egypt and the World Conference”, the minister said that the volume of Egypt’s exports to Africa has increased by 10.4 percent in 2014 compared to 2013. In addition Egypt’s exports to Africa represent 14.7 percent from its exports to the world that registered $26.8 billion.

Furthermore, Qabil added that the trade exchange between Egypt and COMESA between 2010 and 2014 recorded $2.7 billion of which $ 2 billion is the value of the Egyptian exports. Plastics, ceramic products and electronic appliances represent the main chunk of Egypt’s exports while tea, coffee copper and livestock are the main sections of Egypt’s imports from COMESA.

Additionally, the Egyptian exports to COMESA represent 8 percent of its exports to the world in 2014, it’s expected to considerably increase during the upcoming years, the official noted.

Last June, Egypt President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and African leaders pledged to create a free-trade zone across half of the continent by 2017, a bold commitment to dismantle long-standing hurdles to investment in the fast-growing but fragmented region.