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African free trade deal launch unlikely this year - AfCFTA Sec Gen

Published 01/05/2020, 16:13
Updated 01/05/2020, 16:18
African free trade deal launch unlikely this year - AfCFTA Sec Gen

LAGOS, May 1 (Reuters) - A blockbuster African trade deal is
unlikely to be implemented before early next year, an official
said on Friday, after the disruption caused by the new
coronavirus made the current July 1 deadline unworkable.
Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of the African Continental
Free Trade Area, told Reuters that while only the heads of state
of the 55-member AfCFTA could sanction changes to the deadlines,
the cancelled summit between leaders planned for May in South
Africa left few options.
"It is only after the summit that you can say we have a new
trading date. The next opportunity of a summit is on 2 January
2021," Mene said.
The continental free-trade zone would, if successful, become
the largest since the creation of the World Trade Organization
in 1994, stitching 1.3 billion people together in a $3.4
trillion economic bloc.

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