NAIROBI, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is set to submit its papers for the ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) that was signed in March in Kigali, Rwanda, a government official said.
"We shall soon be depositing legal instruments with the African Union, making Kenya the third country in Africa to ratify the convention after Rwanda and Ghana," said Chris Kiptoo, the Principal Secretary for International Trade in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Co-operatives.
Kiptoo said this while presiding over official closing of a four-day African Round of the European Law Students Association (ELSA) Moot Court Competition on World Trade Organization (WTO) Law on Saturday night in Nairobi.
He called upon member states in Africa to invest in knowledge about multilateral trading system in order to fully appreciate and leverage the vast market opportunities created by the AfCFTA.
All the East African countries except Burundi which did not attend the Summit on March 21 in Rwanda signed all the three protocols. Only 22 member countries were required to sign the agreement to make the AfCFTA treaty operational.
According to the African Union, AfCFTA aims to establish a single liberalized market that will spur industrialization, infrastructural development, economic diversification and trade across the continent that is home to some 1.2 billion people.
