At a plenary session held this afternoon at the House of People’s Representatives (HPR), the deputies adopted the draft organic law relating to the founding convention of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
In detail, 152 people voted in favour of the proposed text, with no abstentions and no votes against.
Tunisia thus joins the 30 countries that have already ratified the founding convention of the largest free trade area in Africa.
This draft was rejected by MPs at a plenary session held on 5 March 2020.
If it is important for Tunisia to be part of the AfCFTA, it is because this free trade area aims to establish a comprehensive framework for fruitful trade relations between the member countries of the African Union.
Its objectives include strengthening the competitiveness of enterprises, reducing links through exports of the main goods and consolidating economic and social transition. It also aims to achieve integral growth, industrialization and sustainable development, in line with the African Union’s “Agenda 2063”.
In order to complete the accession procedures, the parliament was called upon to adopt this convention. The said convention aims to diversify trade between States and to increase its volume by 50% by 2022. This will be achieved through improved levels of coordination in the area of trade liberalization. The same goes for setting up the necessary implementation, management and coordination mechanisms.
Its objective is to strengthen the competitiveness of Tunisian products on African markets. This is in view of the high level of customs tariffs applied in most African countries on imported goods. It also stipulates the dismantling of non-customs barriers that impede the movement of goods. This convention will have a positive impact on the export of Tunisian services.
The African free trade area is the largest in the world. It represents 1.2 billion people and trade of more than $300 billion. It will increase the level of trade between African countries from 16% to 33%.
TunisianMonitorOnline
