The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement was signed by 44 nations including Ethiopia, in Kigali Rwanda on Wednesday, March 21, 2018. The agreement that was signed during the 10thExtraordinary Session of the Assembly on AfCFTA is expected to set up a large free trade area to boost economic growth and improve regional integration across Africa.
The agreement commits countries to removing tariffs on 90 percent of goods, with 10 percent of “sensitive items” to be phased in later. The agreement will also liberalize trade in services and might in the future include free movement of people and a single currency.
“With the signature of the Kigali Declaration for the Launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area, Africa makes a giant stride forward in continental integration, in the pan-African vision, and in the development of our continent,” said Vera Songwe, the Executive Secretary of the ECA during the signing ceremony.
Songwe also noted that the historical moment shows the resolve of African leaders to bring the continent’s diversity together and make the flagship project of the African Union Agenda 2063 a reality.
It is stated that while 44 countries signed the AfCFTA, a total of 50 nations have signed either the agreement or the Kigali deceleration underscoring their commitment to the agreement,which aims at doubling intra-African trade by removing non-tariff and tariff barriers on goods and services.
It was further said that 27 countries also signed the separate African Union Protocol on Free Movement of People, which complements the AfCFTA by providing for visa-free travel, the right of residency and the right of business or professional establishment, for citizens between signatory countries.
”The AfCFTA was the culmination of a vision set forth nearly 40 years ago in the Lagos plan of action adopted in 1980”, for a continent-wide market,” stated President of Rwanda Paul Kagame in his key note address.
Also speaking during the historical ceremony attended by 19 heads of state, and additional prime ministers and foreign ministers, Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission stated that “Africa is a sleeping giant that can’t wake up if the continent is divided. It’s time to accelerate the pace of integration, as international competition leaves no room for the weak”, and he called upon African Member States to also sign the Protocol on the free movement of persons, enabling the creation of an African passport.
According to the ECA, among the key beneficiaries will be small and medium sized enterprises, accounting for 80 percent of the region’s businesses; women, who represent 70 percent of the informal cross-border traders; and the youth, who will be able to find new employment opportunities.
ECA estimates that AfCFTA has the potential both to boost intra-African trade by 52.3 percent by eliminating import duties, and to double this trade if non-tariff barriers are also reduced.
The agreement brings together 1.2 billion people with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of over 2 trillion USD.
Signing of African Continental Free Trade Area agreement expected to boost African trade by 52 %
Ethiopian to plant 9 million trees across the country through UN Environment
Ethiopian airlines pledges to plant nine million trees in a Memorandum of Understanding signed with UN Environment on Wednesday March 21, 2018. The MoU focuses on sustainability in the airline business and as part of ‘Plant one tree for every passenger flown’, 9 million trees will be planted across the country by Ethiopian Airlines.
It was stated that, through the MoU, Ethiopian and the UN Environment are looking for innovativeways in which the airline industry can be combined with a sustainable business outlook, the UN Environment and Ethiopian airlines have forged a partnership that will focus on greening the airline’s operations.
“We’re delighted to launch one of the first such agreements of its kind, with Ethiopian Airlines really raising the bar on environmental responsibility and green business. This sends a strong, positive message across the aviation sector,” said Erik Solheim, Head of UN Environment.
According to the MoU, other areas of collaboration between UN Environment and Ethiopian include greening Ethiopian Airline business through the provision of training on sustainable consumption and production, integrated waste management, hazardous chemical treatment and capacity development on air quality monitoring.
There are also ideas on developing environmental awareness raising materials for use in- flight entertainment as well as providing support for the Ethiopian Aviation Academy, with the introduction of a course on the UN Environment Sustainable Consumption and a Green Economy Program.
“Because UN environment and Ethiopian Airlines share common goals and objectives, we wish to collaborate in areas of mutual concern,” Juliette Biao, head on UN Environment’s regional office for Africa also stated.
It was further stated that the signed partnership agreement is a milestone towards the United Nation’s partnership with the private sector and the agreement with Ethiopian Airlines should be an example for all African airlines.
The agreement came on the sidelines of the African Civil Aviation Biofuel Summit that was held in Addis Ababa this week.
Two words for the Prime Minister to be: Good Luck
The selection of a PM is a long process in Ethiopia, dear readers.
Our ‘representatives’ have been and will be battering each others’ brains out to select the ‘Deserving’ one.
Don’t expect the ‘Deserving one’ to bring us the democracy we never had. But let’s at least hope he will be a unifier.
Will he?
These days one feels like a fool for merely asking the question.
Will he be smart or just slow? Can he inspire both domestic and international confidence? Who knows? What little we know about the candidates is so blurred that we are as confused as you are.
I personally would have wanted to hear all the candidates speak and “pitch” for the top job.
Where do we go from here: Chaos? Business-as-usual? Avoidance? Or tolerance and understanding?
Can a new PM make a difference and lead the country towards reforms and stability in Ethiopia?
Under EPRDF you will find that the changing of the guard is merely cosmetic: no matter who sits on the throne, the office of the Prime Minister (post Meles) has limited space to operate. Power is exercised by what is referred to as ‘collective leadership’ (Advisors to the family?). Remember, this week’s ‘election’ merely serves to maintain the status quo. Once elected Prime Minister, that person becomes part of the EPRDF dictatorial continuum.
This time however,political disintegration plagues the EPRDF. People are angrier than ever at the ruling party’s arrogance, at increasing cost of living, at corruption. With no sensible leadership from Addis Ababa, Minnesota has taken over – and until the party leaders figure it out how to open up the political space, it will only get worse.
For the now, now, the new PM will have his hands full in dealing with at least three immediate and daunting situations: (1) Managing the challenges that have weakened national unity and undermined Ethiopians’ allegiance to their country, (2) Dealing with the ‘Keros’ and ‘Fanos’ and their demands for concrete political and economic changes and results,and (3) Fighting corruption and advancing accountability.
Let’s start with the challenges to the federation. The current EPRDF’s Marxist Leninist policy on nationalities, which is filled with many contradictions, seems to have reached its limits in terms of fulfilling the people’s aspirations. At this stage the people want more freedom to be able to express themselves and to choose what is right for them.
How long can the ruling party ignore that its approach to federalism undermines national social cohesion, and that it’s time to launch wide ranging public consultations, draw the collective aspirations of the people and discuss the “national question’ of the day, perhaps even propose a new charter of rights and freedoms for the regional states.
We have no answer.
But what we know is that the current standoff offers an opportune moment for a state-wide process of constitutional reform with the aim of either a comprehensive federalization, or decentralization of more powers to all regions. We could expect greater powers to include self-government in culture, education, economic management, taxation, and policing. Such reform process could be achieved by either a constitutional convention, or a constitutional committee in parliament, followed by a state-wide referendum. These steps would generate a democratic process of debate, dialogue and engagement, and hopefully reunite the Ethiopian society.
Right now no one knows what it takes for a new revolution or abrupt upheaval to materialize. Sudden upheavals may be caused by internal forces, by the established machinery of power, a struggle for power within the Party (behind closed doors),conflicts in Oromia…We don’t know.
The one thing that all these potential scenarios have in common is that a sufficient number of people are tired of the “make-believe”old narrative, where the truth is concealed, where political differences are not tolerated, where corruption is constantly getting worse, and where predictability is constantly deteriorating – in spite of the authorities’ assertions to the contrary.
So where does that leave us?
For the immediate future, whoever is elected as PM and his party should engage in healing our social tensions, negotiations should be favored rather than the use of force, the press should be given more leeway, opposition parties should be allowed to organize and engage across the country,andin connection with coming elections,political parties should be able to compete on an equal and impartial basis. We can even go further and suggest that in addition to the two legislative branches (the House of Representatives and the House of Federation), we could add a third branch for direct citizen voting on bills. Call it PeoplePower or something. The whole objective is to ensure fair and proportional representation that recognizes the interests of all parties and people.
Second, as is the case in many African countries, economic growth has not translated into employment for large segments of the population. Unemployed and under employed Keros and Fanos of this worldwill bewaiting nearby to protest the everyday conditions imposed on them and effect regime change.A perfect storm appears to be forming, these young men and women are poor with nothing to lose and hence cannot be bought over, or assimilated.
How to create employment andwipe out corruption… Guaranteed.
Well, why not start bydismantling the unnecessary, and frankly superfluous, body of regulatory restrictions that are hurting the economy – Most of these regulations simply don’t make sense! Let the government create a system in which it leaves people be free (with a strong sense of social responsibility) toearn a living.It’s clear that when people are free to produce and create, unfettered by excessive government interference, they create new products and services that improve our lives. If we want prosperity, we not only need more economic freedom at the national level and region levels, but at the Kebelelevel as well.
Third,fighting corruption and advancing greater accountability should be the other focus of the new PM. Majority of Ethiopians want corrupt officials punished. If serious about fighting corruption start enacting laws that put squarely a presumption of corruption on the accused.Wealth that is not proportionate to the legitimate income of a public or private official should be nationalized unless the contrary is proved.The new Premier should use every bit of his negotiation skills to make sure the rule of law takes center stage and thattruly independenteven handed justice system, together witha parliament that is accountable to the public are in place.
Will the new PM be strong enough to deal with the current political tsunami that has hit us all? I don’t know, dear reader, but I am naive enough to hope so.
PARTIES IN TROUBLE
Traditional political partiesare having difficulties securing enough votes to become governments in power. This situation has started to trouble the status quo, particularly those that have been well entrenched. BREXIT & TRUMPISM in the UK & US are concrete examples of changing reality. Germany just managed to form a coalition government after four months of negotiations. The recent Italian election ended up in a similar manner. In both cases no single party managed to get the required number of votes to form a government. In places like Greece it was the newly formed party that actually took power, probably to no avail. In these and other cases the stark reality is; traditional political parties are being crushed by newly formed entities that are positioning themselves to the far ends of the prevailing political spectrum. In Europe, the tendency is, by and large, towards the ‘right’!
To be fair, the new entrants in the arena of European politics have genuine and justifiable reasons to challenge the status quo. After fifty years of European consolidation that promised heaven on earth, (EU) the giant union ended up being nothing more than a bureaucratic colossus, unwieldy, intrusive and disempowering. To the European sheeple (human mass) that has been losing ground for over a decade, (for various reasons) the Brussels bureaucracy and its diktat became the target of its frustration. In regards to major issues relevant to the sheeple, the EU only extends lip service and not much more. Issues that are pushed by the major corporations, on the other hand, get the utmost attention by the EU bureaucrats. For example the European parliament,which is known for its generous remuneration to parliamentarians, is an entity without teeth, so to speak. Actual executive power resides within the European Commission and the European Council at the apex of the Brussels bureaucracy. It helps to know other major institutions like NATO, are also located there. In these collectives, the main interest is to advance the interests of transnational capital. The advertised economic benefits(since the euro) only accrued to few countries of the union. For instance, Germany benefited, rather immensely, from the EU and the Euro. On the other hand, Italy lost about a quarter of its manufacturing capacity since joining the Euro. Its youth are migrating to the other countries of Europe, US, Australia, etc., in droves. The Italian government estimates about two hundred thousands of its youth migrate annually. No wonder the Italians are up in arms, politically speaking! Surprisingly, even the Norwegians who are quite rich and secure in their homeland (Norway has one trillion USD of sovereign fund sitting around for rainy days) also seem to look for greener pastures elsewhere. Norway has one of the highest migration numbers in Europe, if not the whole world, relative to its population!
The case of Germany is a bit different. Though it is doing quite well on the economic front, the massive inward migration or immigration that is taking place became one of the main rallying factors for the new parties. What the German sheeple doesn’t realize is; Germany needs labor to keep up with its very dynamic economy. Admitted or not, labor is in short supply from within. In fact, the whole of Europe will need plenty of immigrants, if it wants to hold on to its current economic status. Demography or more accurately, decreasing population, not only in Europe, but all over the world will become a problem in the coming decades, except in Africa. In this regard, the existing order, which assumes continuous economic growth as its raison d’etre,need to be reexamined! We believe, the stabilization of the world’s human population should be taken as a blessing rather than a curse; as the earth’s resources are finite and cannot go on supporting billions and billions of people. We seriously need to come to terms with our excessive consumption (those extra stuff beyond basic needs) that has brought us neither peace nor contentment!
Africa seem to be ripe for another round of revolution, as the current polity has proved, yet again, to be not only thoroughly corrupt but also frighteningly incompetent. Flaunting thieving oligarchs as national champions or mortgaging countries to access temporal funds (to be embezzled by the elites) or celebrating dependence as achievement, selling natural resources for pittance etc., etc., have taken their tolls. As a result, the African youths are erupting all over, demanding probity, integrity, commitment, capacity, courage, etc., from their respective elites/leaders. Be that as it may, whether the current African ruling elites can actually deliver what is required of them is something that remains to be seen. In the mean time and unlike before, the African youth is not going to retreat to the background without a fight. What we are witnessing in places like Ethiopia is only a precursor of things to come! Had it been possible to expand the political space in earnest (on our continent),say like Europe, there would probably be a number of committed political parties imbued with convincing principles togalvanize the sheeple towardsa genuinely equitable and sustainable future!
Here is a statement from one who has been in the trenches: “A riot is the language of the unheard.” Reverend Martin Luther King. Good Day!
