The National Consultation Forum on the Development of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement National Implementation Strategy for Ethiopia was held on Saturday, June 29, 2024, at the Skylight Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The forum began by opening remarks from Prof. Beyene Petros, the Director General of the Policy Studies Institute, Mr. Wubie Mengistu, the Secretary General of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (ECCSA), Dr. Stephen Karingi, the Director of the Regional Integration and Trade Division of the UNECA and H.E. Gebremeskel Chala, the Minister of the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI).
H.E. Prof. Beyene began by welcoming the distinguished guests and participants to the national consultative forum on the development of Ethiopia's African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) implementation strategy. He stated that this was a significant milestone in the process of developing the strategy.
H.E. Prof. Beyene Petros, Director General of PSI
H.E. Prof. Beyene provided some background, explaining that the AfCFTA was one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063, initiated in 2012 and entering into force in 2019. He noted that Ethiopia had become a founding state after ratifying the agreement in 2019. H.E. Prof. Beyene highlighted the scale and potential impact of the AfCFTA, citing World Bank estimates that it would lift 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty, create real income growth of around 450 million US dollars, and increase intra-African exports by 81 percent.
Mr. Wubie Mengistu, Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations
H.E. Prof. Beyene then discussed the role of the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) in developing Ethiopia's national AfCFTA implementation strategy, in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. He stated that PSI was fully committed to this assignment, as it aligned with the Institute's purpose of supporting the Ethiopian government in policy formulation and strategy development.
Recognizing the need for full stakeholder commitment and ownership, H.E. Prof. Beyene explained that the purpose of the consultative forum was to create a sense of ownership among stakeholders and facilitate inclusive and sustainable discussions on the development of the implementation strategy, with minimal environmental impact. He expressed confidence that the diversity of participants present would help achieve these goals.
Dr. Stephen Karingi, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
Finally, H.E. Prof. Beyene thanked UNECA and the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration for their support, and welcomed all the participants, encouraging them to engage in the forum with a spirit of curiosity, collaboration, and shared commitment to the advancement of the AfCFTA.
Next, Mr. Wubie Mengistu, on behalf of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations, stated that he was pleased to take part in the National Consultation Forum on the Development of Ethiopia's AfCFTA Implementation Strategy. He began by thanking the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration and the Policy Studies Institute for organizing the forum, with the support of UNECA.
H.E. Gebremeskel Chala, the Minister of Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration
Mr. Wubie acknowledged that the Government of Ethiopia's 2019 decision to join the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was a commendable measure to help integrate the Ethiopian economy with other African countries. He explained that Ethiopia's membership of the AfCFTA would have a significant impact on the Ethiopian economy, as it could help Ethiopian businesses access other State Parties' markets, increase competition, attract investments, build a market with healthy competition, enhance digital trade, strengthen intellectual property rights protection, and support women and youth traders. Ultimately, he said, the AfCFTA could support Ethiopia's efforts to achieve sustainable and inclusive development.
Mr. Wubie commended the measures the Ethiopian Government had taken following the ratification of the AfCFTA Agreement, such as submitting its tariff offer and preparing to submit its services offer, as well as establishing a National AfCFTA Implementation Committee, of which the Chamber was a member.
Mr. Wubie stated that as a national Chamber, they had been undertaking various activities to increase the private sector's awareness of and readiness to trade under the AfCFTA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration and other partners. He expressed appreciation for the exemplary support the UN Economic Commission for Africa was providing to the Chamber through seconding one of its experts, which showcased the importance of engaging the private sector for successfully implementing the AfCFTA Agreement.
Dr. Abebe Amabachew, Researcher
Mr. Wubie stated that the start of the development of Ethiopia's AfCFTA Implementation Strategy was another step in the right direction. He noted that the fact many private sector representatives were attending the Forum was also laudable, as full implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement demands sufficient private sector participation and engagement.
Mr. Wubie explained that for Ethiopian businesses and the economy in general to adequately benefit from the AfCFTA, an AfCFTA Implementation Strategy that shows priority goods, services, and investments, helps coordinate public-private dialogues and generally guides and facilitates the implementation was indispensable. He assured the attendees that the Chamber was committed to fully supporting the development of the Strategy, including by sharing the views and concerns of the private sector and providing recommendations based on the day-to-day experiences of their member businesses.
Mrs. Hana Woldekidan, Researcher at PSI
However, Mr. Wubie firmly believed that the development of the Strategy needed to be followed by implementation and successive measures by the government, representatives of the private sector (mainly the Chamber) and partners to help businesses practically trade and invest under the AfCFTA. Such measures, he stated, should include training businesses, guiding them on the steps and regulatory requirements to trade under the AfCFTA, helping them boost their competitiveness and continually improving the business environment.
To this end, Mr. Wubie reiterated the Chamber's commitment to work closely with the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, the Policy Studies Institute, other government agencies, the UNECA and other partners. He thanked all the stakeholders present at the Forum and wished them successful deliberations.
Next, Dr. Stephen Karingi ,on behalf of the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, welcomed everyone to the National Consultation Forum on the Development of Ethiopia's AfCFTA Implementation Strategy, which was organized by the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) in collaboration with the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) and supported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
Dr. Stephen mentioned that it was always a distinct honor and pleasure for ECA to be able to support the Government of Ethiopia since ECA's establishment in 1958. He also expressed ECA's deep gratitude to Global Affairs Canada for their long-standing partnership that enabled ECA to play an instrumental role in advancing Africa's integration agenda, including the support they were providing to Ethiopia in the development of the national strategy.
Prof. Melaku Desta, the coordinator of the Africa Trade Policy Centre at UNECA
Dr. Stephen stated that the Agreement establishing the AfCFTA, adopted by African Heads of State and Government on 21 March 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda, was a significant milestone in Africa's relentless efforts towards regional and continental economic integration. He explained that when the AfCFTA is implemented in full, it will create the closest thing to a single African market with over 1.4 billion consumers and a collective GDP of over USD 3 trillion.
Dr. Stephen noted that Ethiopia played an active role in shaping the content of the AfCFTA Agreement during the negotiations and became one of the first 22 countries whose ratification brought the AfCFTA Agreement into force in May 2019, making Ethiopia a founding State Party to the AfCFTA.
Dr. Stephen mentioned that actual preferential trade between State Parties under the AfCFTA was initiated in October 2022 with the launch of the 'AfCFTA-Guided Trade Initiative', and that he was delighted to learn that Ethiopia was now preparing to join the second phase of this initiative very soon.
He expressed his confidence that the development of the strategy was proceeding well, thanks to the work being carried out by the Ethiopian Policy Studies Institute (PSI), and thanked the Director General, Prof. Beyene Petros, for the excellent support being provided to the Government.
Dr. Mulugeta Getu, Dr. Abebe Ambachew and Prof. Melaku Desta[lR]
Dr. Stephen said the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has been supporting Ethiopia in the development of its national African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Implementation Strategy. He noted that this support has benefited from the wealth of experience and expertise ECA has built over the years in assisting its member states in this area. Dr. Stephen expressed pride in stating that 36 countries and 3 Regional Economic Communities (RECs) have developed and launched their AfCFTA Implementation Strategies with ECA's support.
Dr. Stephen acknowledged that since all of these previous strategies were developed before the Phase II AfCFTA protocols came into existence, the Ethiopian strategy would be breaking new ground. He explained that for the first time, the aim is to ensure the Ethiopian national strategy covers all eight AfCFTA protocols.
Dr. Solomon Zena, Research Fellow at PSI
Dr. Stephen also mentioned that in 2022, ECA commissioned a translation of the AfCFTA Agreement into Amharic, making this important instrument more accessible to the Ethiopian public. He expressed confidence that ECA's Public Sector Institutions (PSI) colleagues would find this translation useful as they draft the Ethiopian strategy in both English and Amharic.
Dr. Stephen said the forum that day marked a significant step in Ethiopia's journey towards harnessing the benefits of the AfCFTA. He noted that ECA's experience working with its member states had taught them that the best national strategies are those that are consultative and inclusive in their formulation, as well as practicable and context-specific in their content.
In conclusion, Dr. Stephen thanked the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MOTRI) and the PSI for organizing the important forum, and reaffirmed ECA's continuing commitment to support Ethiopia in domesticating the AfCFTA Agreement. He extended his sincere gratitude to all present and encouraged everyone to actively engage in the discussions, wishing them productive and fruitful deliberations.
Finally, H.E. Gebremeskel Chala, the Minister of Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, began by welcoming all the attendees to the National Consultation Forum on the development of Ethiopia's African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Implementation Strategy. He stated that this event represented an important step in Ethiopia's efforts to integrate its long-isolated market with the rest of the continent and accelerate the country's economic transformation.
The Minister acknowledged that as a founding member of both the United Nations (UN) and the Organization of African Unity (OAU), and as a host to leading institutions like the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union Commission, Ethiopia's commitment to the African integration agenda is deep, long, and enduring. However, he admitted that Ethiopia's leadership role on the political dimensions of integration had not been matched by equivalent efforts and roles on the economic front.
H.E. Gebremeskel Chala reported that over the past six years, Ethiopia has elevated economic liberalization and integration to the top of its economic policy priority list. He mentioned that shortly after taking office, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, H.E. Dr. Abiy Ahmed, proclaimed the powerful ideas of "closer and full regional integration where minds are open to ideas and markets are open to trade" as the guiding philosophy of the government in the economic field.
H.E. Gebremeskel Chala stated that it is in the spirit of this inspiration that Ethiopia ratified the AfCFTA Agreement within the first year of its adoption and became a founding State Party to the AfCFTA. He emphasized that the government's political commitment to the regional and continental integration agenda is strong and unprecedented in Ethiopia's history.
The Minister acknowledged that this strong political commitment is not yet backed up with equally strong foundations in their technical capacity. He expressed gratitude to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) for stepping in to support Ethiopia in the development of its national AfCFTA Implementation Strategy, and asked Dr. Stephen to convey his thanks to the ECA Executive Secretary, H.E. Mr. Claver Gatete, for his leadership and commitment to Africa's integration and transformation.
H.E. Gebremeskel Chala thanked the Policy Studies Institute (PSI), Ethiopia's preeminent public policy think tank, for taking on the responsibility of leading the technical aspect of drafting the national AfCFTA implementation strategy. He expressed confidence that under the able and inspiring leadership of Professor Beyene Petros, the PSI, working closely with the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MOTRI) team, will produce a draft strategy that will enable Ethiopia to benefit from the AfCFTA while also contributing to the goal of advancing African integration.
H.E. Gebremeskel Chala stated that today's forum was a critical step in the process of developing the Ethiopian AfCFTA National Implementation Strategy. He explained that in producing this strategy, their aim was to identify and leverage Ethiopia's competitive advantages, enhance their production and trade capabilities within the AfCFTA, and ensure that all segments of their society can participate in and benefit from the economic opportunities it presents.
H.E. Gebremeskel Chala acknowledged the combined experience and expertise represented in the room, and said that to harness it to serve their higher goals, they would engage in meaningful and constructive dialogue, share insights freely and generously, and forge a shared understanding of the strategic priorities and actions that Ethiopia needs to undertake to position itself as a key player in the AfCFTA.
In conclusion, the Minister thanked the Policy Studies Institute, under the leadership of H.E. Prof. Beyene Petros, for its remarkable work in helping to develop Ethiopia's AfCFTA Implementation Strategy. He also reiterated his appreciation to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the premier continental think tank-PSI, for its unrelenting support to their work. The Minister thanked all the attendees and wished for fruitful deliberations ahead.
After the opening remarks, Prof. Melaku Desta, who is the coordinator of the Africa Trade Policy Centre at UNECA, chaired a session. In this session, two papers were presented by PSI researchers - Dr. Abebe Ambachew and Dr. Mulugeta Getu.
Dr. Abebe Ambachew from the Policy Studies Institute presented the Inception Report to develop the Ethiopian AfCFTA Implementation Strategy, followed by a presentation by Dr. Mulugeta Getu on Ethiopia's journey to the AfCFTA and the next steps for stakeholder consultation.
Dr. Abebe presented on the "Development of Ethiopia's AfCFTA National Implementation Strategy: Inception Report" during the National Consultation Forum. He highlighted several key points about the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). He noted that Africa is a large market, but it is highly fragmented, with 107 unique land borders between 54 states and divergent rules across regulatory standards, competition, investment, intellectual property rights, and services, which makes it difficult for businesses to scale across borders.
Additionally, intra-African trade is relatively low, accounting for only 15% of total African trade. Dr. Abebe emphasized that consolidating this fragmented African market could create significant market opportunities, scale economies, and improved productivity. He outlined the key milestones of the AfCFTA, including its adoption by the AU Assembly in 2012, the start of negotiations from 2016-2018, and its coming into force in 2019 after being signed by 54 countries and ratified by 47 of them.
Dr. Abebe discussed the primary aims of the AfCFTA, which include creating a single market for goods and services, liberalizing tariffs, facilitating investment through free movement of capital and persons, laying the foundation for a Continental Customs Union, promoting inclusive and gender-sensitive socio-economic development, enhancing the competitiveness of African economies, promoting industrialization, diversification and resilience, and resolving the challenges of overlapping memberships to expedite regional and continental integration.
Dr. Abebe highlighted that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) comprises a framework agreement and protocols, with a Tariff Liberalization Schedule that will gradually remove tariffs on 90% of tariff lines initially, followed by an additional 7% and the final 3%. He explained that the AfCFTA represents a new direction for Ethiopia, as the country has ratified the agreement, which is the first-ever free trade area for Ethiopia.
Dr. Abebe also discussed the potential impacts of the AfCFTA on Ethiopia, including an increase in overall trade, with exports rising by 2.1% and imports by 5.6%, as well as significant growth in priority service sectors. He noted that the AfCFTA will help to diversify Ethiopia's trade with the rest of Africa, which currently accounts for a small portion of its overall trade, and will also contribute to the diversification of Ethiopia's export products and sectors.
Ethiopia joins the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) with the hopes of unblocking trade barriers, reducing the cost of landlockedness, discovering new export markets in the region, and diversifying its export products. The gains from trade are expected to improve welfare, drive structural transformation, and promote inclusive development. However, ensuring effective implementation is key to harnessing the potential benefits of the AfCFTA.
Dr. Abebe stated that Ethiopia has not yet developed an implementation strategy for the AfCFTA. Therefore, PSI, in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) through the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC), will formulate a comprehensive draft National AfCFTA Implementation Strategy. This strategy will cover the AfCFTA Agreement framework and all its 8 Protocols, informed by macroeconomic reviews, sectoral analyses, SWOT analyses, and risk assessments.
The key aims of the strategy are to guide Ethiopia's efforts to implement the AfCFTA in a manner that aligns with its objectives of poverty reduction, economic diversification, and inclusive, sustainable, and resilient development. It will also outline priority goods and services, market opportunities, and explore the potential for regional value chains. The strategy will propose specific interventions and draft action plans for the short, medium, and long term, ensuring alignment with national development plans. Additionally, it will evaluate the adequacy of the country's institutional and legal infrastructure while identifying any constraints and areas requiring reform.
The key components of the AfCFTA strategy include an analysis of macroeconomic, trade, production, and competitiveness frameworks; an AfCFTA situational analysis, market opportunities, and potential challenges; an assessment of institutional, regulatory, and policy gaps; and a consideration of cross-cutting issues such as inclusivity, gender equality, youth empowerment, environmental considerations, climate change, technology, e-commerce, digitalization, and urbanization. The strategy will also include a SWOT analysis and a strategic framework for implementing the AfCFTA from a national perspective.
The approach and methodology for developing the strategy will involve qualitative methods such as desk research, literature review, stakeholder consultations, key informant interviews, regulatory and policy gap analysis, and SWOT analysis. This process will ensure a participatory and inclusive approach.
Dr. Abebe stated that to identify Ethiopia's potential goods and services sectors and sectors with competitive advantages, quantitative methods would be used. This includes the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), which is an approximation of a country's competitive export strengths. The RCA can identify sectors where Ethiopia holds a strong advantage (high RCA) or faces increased competition (low RCA), using disaggregated analysis at the HS-6 level.
Another method is the Regional Orientation Index (ROI), which would inform whether Ethiopia's exports of a product are more concentrated towards a specific region, such as Africa, compared to other destinations. This would complement the RCA analysis to determine which commodity markets might experience trade diversion following the AfCFTA.
Dr. Abebe also mentioned the use of export similarity or complementarity with other trading partners. The Export Complementarity Index would provide insights into the potential success of trade between Ethiopia and its African partners under AfCFTA, with a value of 0 indicating no overlap and no trade potential, and a value closer to 1 indicating potential trade. The Export Similarity Index focuses on the degree of similarity between Ethiopia's exports and those of other African countries, with a value of 0 indicating no overlap/export of entirely different goods, potentially indicating trade potential if their products do not compete directly.
Additionally, Dr. Abebe said they would use Intra-Industry Trade (IIT) to understand how value chains integrate and evolve within industries, computing the Grubel-Lloyd (GL) index, which ranges from 0 to 1, with a value closer to 1 indicating substantial intra-industry trade activity. He said they would employ concentration indices to help assess whether Ethiopia's exporting and importing activities are becoming more concentrated.
The key data sources for this analysis would include trade data from the Ethiopian Statistical Services (ESS), National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), UN COMTRADE, WITS, WTO, IMF, and regional trade agreement secretariats. Service trade data would come from UNCTAD, UN COMTRADE, and OECD, while investment data would be sourced from the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC), IMF, World Bank, and UNCTAD.
Next, Dr. Mulugeta Getu, Lead Researcher at PSI, presented on Ethiopia’s Journey to the AfCFTA and the Next Steps. He said the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) comprises legal instruments including a framework agreement and protocols.
As of January 2024, 54 of the 55 African Union member states have signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. As of June 2024, there are 47 State Parties to the AfCFTA. Phase I of the AfCFTA covers trade in goods, services, and dispute settlement, while Phase II covers investment, competition policy, intellectual property rights, digital trade, and women and youth in trade. The protocols on Women and Youth in Trade and Digital Trade are part of the overarching AfCFTA framework. The priority sectors under the AfCFTA include financial services, transport, communication, business services, and tourism.
Dr. Mulugeta said the AfCFTA's dispute settlement mechanism focuses on amicable, transparent, and swift resolution of disputes, and has established a Dispute Settlement Body, Adjudicating Panels, and an Appellate Body for second-tier review. State Parties may also choose to settle disputes through the Office of the Secretary-General or conciliation and mediation.
Dr. Mulugeta underscored that the AfCFTA aims to promote intra-African investment, establish a harmonized legal framework for investment protection, ensure equitable treatment in accordance with national legislation, and safeguard investors and their investments from non-commercial risks.The AfCFTA's competition policy aims to foster fair competition among market players, establish a unified continental competition regime, eliminate the impacts of anti-competitive practices, and develop and strengthen the capacity of State Parties to address such practices.
The AfCFTA's intellectual property rights protocol seeks to establish harmonized rules and principles for the promotion, protection, and enforcement of IPRs, and protect IPRs, including by providing right holders with legal remedies and institutional mechanisms to enforce their rights and to refrain from discriminating.
The AfCFTA's digital trade protocol aims to enable the digital trade in of goods and services, eliminate barriers to digital trade, establish harmonized rules and practices, and encourage the use of advanced technologies in trade, as well as accelerate digital preparedness and create a transparent and predictable system.
Dr. Mulugeta mentioned that the AfCFTA's protocol on Women and Youth in Trade aims to reduce, if not eliminate, the disproportionate challenges faced by women and youth traders and help achieve inclusive and sustainable development, through measures such as providing trade information and training, access to finance, supporting them in IPRs protection, and promoting competitive and digital trade.
Dr. Mulugeta noted that the ratification process of the AfCFTA agreement by member states involves translating the obligations of the agreement into national law and submitting detailed schedules of tariff concessions on goods and schedules of specific commitments on services.
As of the reporting period, 48 tariff liberalization offers have been submitted, with 45 technically verified, and 46 offers of services liberalization have been submitted, with 22 technically verified. The AfCFTA Guided Trade Initiative was announced in July 2022 to start trading under the preferences of the AfCFTA Agreement, and participation in the initiative officially began on 7 October 2022 with 8 State Parties, which has now expanded to more than 30 countries, including Ethiopia. Regarding Ethiopia's journey, the country was not a member of the GATT nor actively engaged in trade liberalization initiatives within the sub-region, being a member of COMESA and IGAD but not really of the COMESA FTA. However, Ethiopia has recently changed direction, with AfCFTA signature and ratification, as well as intensified efforts towards WTO accession.
Ethiopia actively participated in the AfCFTA process from the adoption of the agenda and negotiations, signing the AfCFTA in March 2018 and ratifying it through Proclamation No.1124/2019, with the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) empowered to implement the agreement. Ethiopia has undertaken various capacity-building and sensitization efforts, including awareness creation campaigns, developing a training manual, website development, establishment of an NTB National Monitoring Committee, and workshops on the AfCFTA and Phase II protocols. Regarding implementation steps, Ethiopia has submitted its tariff offers for goods in late 2023 and is preparing to submit service tariff offers, is preparing to participate in the second phase of the AfCFTA Guided Trade Initiative, has translated the AfCFTA agreement into the local language, Amharic, and has established a National AfCFTA Implementation Committee and, with the support of UNECA, has initiated the development of a National Implementation Strategy.
The UNECA, PSI, and MoTRI organized a kick-off meeting to start the process. The PSI then developed an inception report, which was internally reviewed by MoTRI and UNECA. The UNECA, PSI, and MoTRI presented the report to the National AfCFTA Implementation Committee and organized a National Consultative Forum, where they engaged representatives of all relevant stakeholders. The PSI and MoTRI then conducted data collection and stakeholder consultations. The PSI submitted a draft AfCFTA Implementation Strategy, which was internally reviewed by MoTRI and UNECA.
UNECA, PSI, and MoTRI then organized an expert review meeting, where they engaged representatives of all relevant stakeholders. The PSI then finalized the strategy and translated it into Amharic. The final strategy was endorsed by PSI, MoTRI, and UNECA. UNECA, PSI, and MoTRI then organized a validation meeting for the official launch, engaging representatives of all relevant stakeholders.
The approach was described as a participatory and inclusive process, involving multi-stakeholder consultations. A wide range of national stakeholders were engaged, including policy-making entities, the private sector, civil society organizations, academia, development partners, and regional stakeholders.
The consultative discussion provided an opportunity for stakeholders to be heard and flag concerns related to readiness and awareness, risks and mitigation, legal/regulatory/institutional reforms, SWOT analysis, and strategic objectives, recommended actions, and initiatives.
A stakeholder consultation forum was proposed, with five thematic groups covering trade in manufacturing/construction, trade in agricultural/mining commodities, trade in services/digital trade, investment/macro policy/regulatory framework, and women/youth/environment/cross-cutting issues.
The participants then engaged in breakout sessions, dividing into 4 groups to provide input to inform the development of the AfCFTA strategy. Dr. Solomon Zena, from the Policy Studies Institute, chaired this session. The inputs from the breakout groups were summarized and discussed in the larger group setting.
Finally, the consultative forum was concluded with closing remarks by Ato Samuel from MoTRI. He said the forum provided a platform for open dialogue and discussion on the challenges, opportunities, and next steps for Ethiopia's participation in the continental free trade area. He emphasized saying moving forward, Ethiopia will continue to leverage such consultative processes to ensure a coordinated and inclusive approach to the AfCFTA rollout, further strengthening the country's position as a key player in the new era of intra-African trade.