Fourteen items will be discussed through the Sharm El-Sheikh Agreement between the three main African economic blocs, according to an official from Zambia.
These include tariff liberalisation, liberalising trade, trade remedies, expediting cooperation, the rules of origin, disputes settlement, and customs documents.
The official told Daily News Egypt that the second phase will be on competition policy on exports, and will be discussed after completion of these negotiations.
“The agreement items will increase to 17, and the approval by the 26 countries will be by the end of 2017,” added the official. “The items that have priority, which have already discussed, are the tariff liberalisation, customs liberalisation and rules of origin.”
He added that most of these items are agreed upon, and now the countries are focusing on trade, industries, and infrastructure services.
The principle problem facing the signatory countries is regarding the rules of origin, which means the quality of the products varies from country to country, according to the official. He further expected that tariff liberalisation will be conducted soon, because all the three blocs have been working on it since 2000.
