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President Hage Geingob says Namibia is still dissatisfied with some aspects of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, despite the signing of the agreement at the African Union summit in November. Mauritania last week.
Geingob made these remarks on Saturday. The AU summit and a visit to Nigeria
The President said he was dissatisfied with the way the agreement was worked out and "pushed" without proper consideration of the impact in smaller markets, such as Namibia.
The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) should remove trade barriers, such as tariffs and import quotas, to allow the free flow of goods and services between states members of the African Union.
Boost trade, growth, and employment for more than 1.2 billion people on the continent and create one of the largest free trade blocs in the world. The agreement would also force African countries to increase their production capacity in order to export to other countries.
Although Namibia has already committed to the agreement, Geingob said the country had expressed concerns about the levy on imports to be paid by all member states, which he said would disadvantage small import-dependent markets. "19659003" "We have signed ACFTA, although we have some reservations because we have the SADC free trade area, and we have the tripartite zone." We registered our dissatisfaction, "said the President.
"When you look at the details of the agreement, you can see that there are mistakes.There are small countries like Namibia that are open.When we talk about 0.2% on imports, it will bring us a lot of money. "
Geingob added that the AU would evaluate Namibia to determine the tax that the country should pay. After appraisal, Namibia would pay nearly US $ 4 million, or about N $ 54 million at the current exchange rate, instead of US $ 2 million (N $ 27 million)
" We are now classified as a rich country. high per capita we have. Nobody cares about the distribution of wealth. They must understand our position that our country was oppressed, so the distribution is not even in Namibia. So we can not just take this artificial mathematical formula and say that we are rich, and they charge us so much, "he said, despite the fact that the president said the government would put measures in place to facilitate the country's participation in the large continental market.One of these measures was to remove the fencing of the veterinary cordon to increase the production of beef for export.
"Of course, our meat cattle is in demand in other countries. Nigeria even asks that we send experts in meat processing because we are advanced, "said Geingob.
" But we do not have any beef because we do not have enough of cattle. We need to open the red line so that we can have more meat, which can be exported, "he continued.
He added that the issue of removing the red line" is not a question of whether it is a health issue. "
" So, unless we go to the other side of the Angolan border, because the cattle are moving freely, and if the Angolan cattle are not treated, they will introduce diseases into our country. Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said Saturday in an interview with The Namibian that the government was negotiating with the Angolan authorities to erect a border fence in order to eliminate the red line.
She added that the removal of the red line was also among the items on the agenda for the Earth Conference scheduled for October this year.
"We hope we will come out of the consensus conference on how to speed up this case" he noted.
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