President John Dramani Mahama has announced plans to champion the inclusion of Caribbean nations in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) when he assumes office as Chairman of the African Union (AU), describing the move as a strategic step towards strengthening economic ties between Africa and the Caribbean.
According to Ghana’s President, expanding the AfCFTA framework to accommodate Caribbean countries would create greater opportunities for trade, investment and economic cooperation while building on the historical and cultural links shared between the two regions.
President Mahama made the remarks during a joint press conference with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness as part of his official state visit to Jamaica.
Speaking on the prospects for increased trade between Africa and the Caribbean, President Mahama acknowledged that boosting commercial exchanges would require deliberate planning and sustained investment rather than expecting immediate results.
“With regards to trade, we don’t kid ourselves that you snap your fingers and suddenly our trade volumes will go up. We need to work at it. And that is why I said one way of working at it is to put in the infrastructure and the logistics. But the second is to expand the trade area.
“And that is why I said as chair of the AU, I am going to push for the inclusion of the Caribbean into the African Continental Free Trade Area.”
President Mahama further explained how the AfCFTA operates, noting that the agreement provides a harmonised system that allows businesses to trade more easily across participating countries once their products meet the required standards.
He said the harmonisation of product standards is one of the key pillars of the continental trade arrangement, making it easier for manufacturers and exporters to access multiple markets without undergoing separate certification processes in each country.
“The way the African Continental Free Trade Area works is that we harmonise our standards. And once you get approval from your standards authority that your product is of the standard that you can export, then they put you on a register.
“And if you go on, you can see which commodities qualify. They can be electrical cables. They can be transformers. They can be iron and steel products. They can be processed food products.
“I mean, there are so many pharmaceutical products. And so once you go in there and you decide to trade, you go on the platform. It will get you in touch with the producer in whichever country.”
