Business

Africa lags behind on global trade � Serame

Serame
 
Serame

She was speaking at the official opening of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regional trade policy course for English speaking African countries at the University of Botswana (UB) this week.

Serame emphasised the importance for the region to continue building necessary capacity to be able to formulate robust trade and industrial policies, which can facilitate integration into the global economy, and consequently create the much needed employment opportunities. “The WTO regional trade policy course is one important way of attaining the much-needed expertise, which can assist to achieve this objective,” she said.

She added that it remains important for the WTO to create an enabling environment for developing and least developed countries to be able to integrate into the multilateral trading system. She said WTO rules should take into consideration the special needs of the vulnerable members of the organisation most of which are in Africa. According to the PS, failure by African countries to trade with each other has meant that they have been unable to harness the synergies and competencies of their economies and take full advantage of economies of scale and other benefits such as income and employment generation that greater market integration would have provided.

“In this regard, facilitating trade within the continent remains critical.  It is my expectation that this course will have a regional dimension and will thus address issues of regional integration,” Serame said. She further noted that, although the participation of African countries in trade negotiations has improved over the years, more still needs to be done to ensure the interest of the negotiations are safeguarded.

She also stated that Africa needs to be more proactive and be able to influence the agenda for negotiations in the WTO.

“For this to be achieved, we require greater knowledge, skills to negotiate and resilience.  A course like the regional trade policy course contributes significantly to building the necessary capacity,” she said.

Professor Martin Mokgwathi, acting deputy vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at UB said the regional trade policy courses are an integral part of the WTO trade-related technical assistance activities.

He explained that the objectives of the WTO’s trade-related technical assistance programmes are to enhance human and institutional capacity of members, to take full advantage of their participation in the rules-based multilateral trading system and for members to enforce their rights and obligations associated with their participation. Faustin Luanga, head of Asia and Pacific desk at the WTO Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation noted that 2016 marks the last year WTO will be running the regional trade policy course for English speaking African countries in partnership with the UB.

He said the course has been held in Africa since 2002 and that it has been held in partnership with Botswana’s institution of highest learning since 2013. “However, I am convinced that our collaboration will not end here and will be renewed through the framework of other technical assistance activities that can be planned in the future,” he said. The course is being hosted by the UB in collaboration with the WTO and the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry.

The course is one of the training activities offered by the WTO and it is aimed at assisting WTO member states with the implementation of the WTO agreements and negotiations.  The course is targeting government officials dealing with trade issues and is held over two months.

The countries participating in this year’s course include Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.