CAIRO,
Egypt, September 10, 2020/ -- A survey of 200 CEOs was commissioned by
the Pan-
African Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee (
PAFRAC), and conducted by
African Business magazine in partnership with the
Afreximbank. It revealed that:- African CEOs explicitly called for a fairer system governing global trade that will support developing countries
- 37% of the CEOs surveyed feel WTO as it stands is ineffective
- 65% of the CEOs feel the global trading system is unfair to Africa
-
The CEOs were also optimistic about the future outlook: Over 50% of
CEOs believe global trade will increase over the next 12 months; and
over 70% of CEOs believe intra-africa trade will increase over the next
12 months
A survey commissioned by the Pan-African Private Sector
Trade and Investment Committee (PAFRAC) to gauge the private sector
view around trade has highlighted the private sector’s desire for
considerable reforms to make the global trade rules system fairer and
more transparent.
Two hundred CEOs were surveyed around issues
concerning the WTO and trade in general. It was done in light of the
next phase of ongoing consultations to select the institution’s next
Director General. Three of the eight candidates are African: Nigeria’s
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Kenya's Amina Mohamed and Egypt's Abdel-Hamid
Mamdouh.
The survey covered a number of areas which revealed a
general consensus that the current rules penalise the African continent
and its private sector. 86.6% of the respondents understand the role of
the WTO in global trade. However, a majority believe the WTO is not
effective in fulfilling its role. As much as infrastructure, logistics
and human capital were cited as two major constraints to growth in
Africa, the CEOs also stressed the skewed international trade regime as
another key constraint.
Prof. Benedict Oramah, President of
Afreximbank said “As the pan-African trade finance bank, Afreximbank has
been mandated to host the PAFTRAC secretariat. Any reform needs to
support a burgeoning African private sector and an increasingly
integrated Africa. We have seen, over the past quarter of a century
since the WTO was formed, the emergence of a robust and dynamic African
private sector, and more recently significant steps to integrate Africa
under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The WTO and
its new leadership will need to recognise the imperative of African
integration and put development at the centre of any trade agenda.”
Interestingly,
if the majority of CEOs believed that the global trading system was
unfair, most also see the multilateral system strengthening in the
coming years. They outlined a set of reforms that should be undertaken
for a fairer and more transparent trading system, including in the areas
of voice and participation, tariffs and non-tariff barriers,
agriculture and subsidies.
The CEOs were also optimistic about
the future outlook: over 50% of CEOs believe global trade will increase
over the next 12 months; and over 70% of CEOs believe intra-africa trade
will increase over the next 12 months.
Pat Utomi, Chair of
PAFTRAC, stressed that unless reform was forthcoming the current global
crisis may penalise the African private sector even further: “We have
seen during this pandemic companies in the industrialised world have
received massive bailouts, tax incentives, not to mention government
contracts and fiscal stimuli. Companies in Africa were not so fortunate
and will have to deal with a world where trade will be depressed because
of the post-covid environment. As such, a fairer global trade
environment and trading system is more urgent today than ever.”
The
survey as well as a debate around a communiqué to be sent to all
candidates who are in the race for the directorship of the WTO will be
presented at a webinar taking place this afternoon, and hosted by the
Afreximbank.
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