El-Sisi Chairs AU Extraordinary Summit

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi chaired today the Extraordinary Summit of the African Union for the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in Niamey, Niger’s capital.

The Spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency said that the Extraordinary Summit was the center of attention of all countries of the continent and the international community as a whole. During this summit, the African Continental Free Trade Area was launched after a number of ratifications required for enforcing this agreement was completed, which is one of Egypt’s most important priorities in light of its chairmanship of the African Union as this agreement is a milestone in the continent's economic integration process and as it is the world's largest free trade area in size.

During the summit, President El-Sisi stressed that achieving productive and industrial integration among the countries of the continent requires more effort and perseverance to liberalize trade in goods and services, provide the necessary trade guarantees and create an enabling investment environment in order to achieve the ambitious objectives of the agreement and meet the legitimate aspirations of the African peoples for development and progress.

President El-Sisi stressed that the upgrading of the African infrastructure network is essential for the success of the agreement, which is imperative for any successful experience of regional integration in order to facilitate the flow of goods, services, communications, data and individuals, which contributes to reducing the cost of trade and investment, stimulating further growth, and promoting the level of Livelihood of the African citizen.

The Niamey Summit witnessed the African Heads of State and Government discussing the perception of the executive and operational phase of the Continental Free Trade Agreement with a view to promoting intra-trade and removing tariff and non-tariff barriers, as well as reviewing progress in the complementary trade negotiations for issuing the necessary guidance to overcome the obstacles to achieving the objectives of the agreement.

El-Sisi also participated in the unveiling of the commemorative plaque, which will be transferred later to the entrance of the AfCFTA Secretariat. He also witnessed the launch of a number of operational tools for the African Continental Free Trade Area, namely rules of origin, and clearing and electronic payment system, both of which would promote cross-border trade between the countries of the continent.