Africa
By Kennedy Nnamani
THE Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, held its first regional meeting on Dispute Settlement Mechanism for the Africa Continental Free Trade, AfCFTA.
Held on 23 and 24 March 2022, the meeting was to exchange views on the evolving AfCFTA Dispute Resolution Mechanism, DSM, with the aim of formulating common regional positions that would make the system more efficient.
Speaking on behalf of Tei Konzi, the commissioner for Trade, Customs and Free Movement, Kolawole Sofola, the acting director for Trade underlined the commitment of ECOWAS to coordinate the roles of the directorate in accordance with the directions of the ECOWAS Heads of States and Government.
In the same vein, Vivian Opoku-Agyakwa, who represented the Republic of Ghana and chairperson of the meeting lauded the ECOWAS Commission and underscored the importance of member states to participate in such a meeting, which would allow the region to have a common approach on issues related to the dispute settlement mechanism of the AfCFTA.
During the meeting, recommendations were made from the presentations from the World Trade Organization, WTO, Secretariat, ECOWAS Commission, ECOWAS Community Court of Justice and the AfCFTA Secretariat to focus on the central role of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body in administering the dispute settlement process, the avenues for the settlement of commercial and trade disputes in West Africa and the protocol on rules, procedures relating to settlement of dispute in the AfCFTA.
Recall that the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, saw the light of the day in May 2019 to include a protocol on the settlement of disputes between states parties regarding their rights and obligations under the AfCFTA and has today been signed by 54 out of the 55 member States of the African Union, AU.
The meeting was attended by representatives from ministries responsible for Trade and Justice in Member States, representatives from the World Trade Organization, WTO, the African Continental Free Trade Areas, AfCFTA, Secretariat, as well as the Commission of the Economic Community of West African, ECOWAS.
KN
Tags: Kennedy Nnamani
