The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has launched its IGAD Regional Trade Policy 2022-2026. Representatives of IGAD Member States from Ministry of Trade and Heads of Chamber of Commerce and Industry, representatives of partners such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the Pan-African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PACCI) attended the one-day event in Nairobi on 15 September 2022.

In his opening remarks, the Head of Mission in Kenya Dr Fatuma Adan said: “As trade integration remains a strategic goal for us as a regionally and continent-wide, we need to think about fragmented markets, reform our trade facilitation measures and remove all tariff and non-tariff barriers, as well as improve our policies, procedures and regulation across borders to allow for flexible movement of people, goods, services and capital.”

By launching the IGAD Regional Trade Policy, IGAD aims to raise awareness about its instruments and how to use them in the context of IGAD Member States along the way of aligning all trade-related policies to AfCFTA as a continental flagship.

The launch will also be an opportunity to brief the participants about how trade environment can be improved through policy instruments, to share update on trade status, investments, and projects at member state level, and to share update on trade logistics, facilitation and potentials of public-private partnerships between public and private entities

The IGAD Regional Trade Policy’s vision is to foster market-driven, development-oriented, and sustainable trade in the IGAD region, capable of catalysing expanded economic growth, reducing poverty, ensuring food security and attaining improved living standards in the region.

The corresponding overarching objective of the Policy is to promote sustainable growth and development of the IGAD Member States by raising the standard of living of their people through closer economic integration. This is broken down into specific objectives, i.e. to create an open and unified regional economic space to boost intra-IGAD trade by creating the necessary enabling environment and removing obstacles for trade in goods and services; to create coherence among national trade policies of IGAD Member States; to help IGAD Member States implement their obligations arising from regional trade agreements, in particular the AfCFTA; and to promote creation of an enabling environment for foreign and domestic investment.

The launch was followed by a training on September 16^th on Trade along IGAD Corridors under the theme Trade Facilitation, Logistics, and Business Environment Issues.

Extract:

The IGAD Regional Trade Policy is designed mainly as a cooperation framework that seeks to guide the IGAD Members States to promote trade integration in a more flexible policy environment. There are different justifications for this approach. 

First, it has been recog­nized that economic integration is a long process of harmonization of national trade and other policies which should be implemented gradually. Second, IGAD Member States are party to one or more regional economic agreements and there is a need to ensure that the IGAD Regional Trade Policy is flexible enough to accommodate the obligations of the Member States under other regional agreements. 

Another key development that informed the approach taken by the IGAD Regional Trade Policy is the signing of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) by 54 African Union member states, which marked a historic milestone for economic integration in Africa. Today, 40 African countries have ratified the AfCFTA. From the IGAD region, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have joined the AfCFTA and Somalia is only waiting for parliamentary approval to join. This significant development in our continent requires rethinking of the approach to be pursued by a regional trade policy like ours. 

Accord­ingly, one of the key objectives of the IGAD Regional Trade Policy is assisting IGAD Member States in implementing their obligations under the AfCFTA as well as in negotiating the remaining issues. In terms of scope, the IGAD Regional Trade Policy goes beyond the classic issues of trade in goods and trade in services, and captures other issues such as customs administration and trade facilitation as well as cross-border trade, which are critical in the context of intra-IGAD trade. 

The IGAD Regional Trade Policy also emphasizes sustainable development by covering cross-cutting issues such as trade and gender and trade and environment. This also ensures that the IGAD Regional Trade Policy is aligned with other IGAD policies and strategies.

The report can be downloaded here.