Maseru, Aug. 10 — The African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat holds a four day capacity building workshop on dispute settlement mechanism and trade goods for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Business Development and the private sector aimed at providing depth in understanding of dispute resolutions mechanism to ensure that Lesotho carries its trade responsibilities effectively.
In his opening remarks, Minister of Trade, Industry and Business Development, Mr. Motlatsi Maqelepo says the African Continental Free Trade Area is the largest free trade area in the world bringing together 55 countries of African Union to create a single market for Africa to enable free flow of goods and services across the continent and boost the trading position of Africa in the global market.
Mr. Maqelepo further indicated that, AfCFTA represents unprecedented opportunities for economic transformation, industrialisation, investment, job creation and increased intra-African trade.
He, however, indicated that these opportunities can only be fully realized if member states possess the institutional and technical capacity to implement the agreement and safeguard their rights under its legal framework.
Head of AfCFTA delegation, Mrs. Balkissou Alfa Hassan Sido Kabo says the workshop will enable participants to appreciate the full extent of responsibilities for the success of the common market citing that AfCFTA’s main objective remains the commitment to strengthen the economic relations between Africans through the creation of an expanded and safe market of goods and services, further emphasising that, protocol of an open procedure for the settlement is crucial thus providing effective, efficient and practical legal framework.
The Dean of the Faculty of Law at the National University of Lesotho, Dr. Lehlohonolo Ramokanate says knowledge on AfCFTA laws will be beneficial to Lesotho as it only operates with arbitration acts which deal with domestic disputes.
He further indicated that this agreement will explore fairness since all countries will be regulated under the same laws despite their different trade laws as independent countries.
Also a participant at the workshop, Mrs. Tsotang Tsietsi says this agreement opens an opportunity to reach larger markets explaining that lesotho has great products both goods and service but has limited market.
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