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AGOA, AfCFTA can be complementary

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AGOA, AfCFTA can be complementary:

Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, says the United States of America’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) initiative and the AfCFTA can be complementary and supportive trade initiatives.

He was speaking at a media briefing on the side lines of the ongoing AGOA forum held in Johannesburg.

At its core, the American driven AGOA is aimed at enhancing market access for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa while the African Union’s AfCFTA is aimed at significantly boosting and enhancing intra-trade across every African states.

“An example of how that alignment can seize plot is if you study at the protocol on investment which establishes enhanced legal rights for investors but also enables countries to regulate investment inflows in the public interest. 

“Similarly in the area of intellectual property rights. The US TR [United States Trade Representative] under Ambassador [Katherine Chi Tai] has been very clear that they support reforms of the global patent system so that it is at the service of public health and at the service, in our case as the continent, at the service of industrial development and job creation. 

“These are some of the principles, we believe, should be considered where we are to maintain a discussion about trade and investment between AGOA eligible countries and the United States. These are some of the complementarities [between AGOA and the AfCFTA] that can be explored,” he said.

Mene said the continent must be “cautious not to create fragmentation within the AfCFTA as we implement AGOA”.

“In the AfCFTA there are countries in North Africa who are state parties to the agreement establishing the AfCFTA. There are also countries that are within AGOA eligibility. So that fragmentation, we acquire got to address it so that we don’t reverse the gains that we are making in integrating the economy of the African continent. 

“I’m very encouraged that the US is willing to listen and is sensitive to this need to progress on integration,” he said at the session.

The Secretary General was emphatic when asked about the possibility of AGOA becoming an obstacle for the implementation of the AfCFTA.

“It’s a technical issue. I don’t consider it’s really a political issue, it’s a technical issue about how we fabricate that legal technical alignment between the rules of the AfCFTA and AGOA.

“We are taking measures to ensure that the implementation of AGOA supports industrial development, supports regional integration [and] supports the objectives of the AfCFTA,” he concluded. – SAnews.gov.za

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Constitution Hill: From Injustice to Justice

Constitution Hill is a living museum located on the ridge between Braamfontein and Hillbrow. It is a site of extreme contrasts, housing both the notorious Old Fort prison complex—where some of the most horrific human rights abuses of the 19th and 20th centuries occurred—and the modern South African Constitutional Court, the highest guardian of the country’s democracy. This site is often referred to as the “Robben Island of Johannesburg” because it incarcerated nearly every major figure in the liberation struggle, including Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Joe Slovo, Albertina Sisulu, and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. However, its history is far older than the anti-Apartheid struggle; it was originally built in 1893 as a prison by the Boer Republic and later converted into a military fort to defend the city against the British during the South African War.