Sunday, 12- March 2018: The Meeting of Legal Experts of the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Justice and Legal Affairs kicked off Sunday, 11 March 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda.

The week-long session will deliberate on the Agreement Establishing the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), specially focusing on AfCFTA objectives, the Institutional Framework, Implementation and the inter-relationship of the Free Trade Zone with existing regional and international arrangements.

Other issues on the table for consideration are: - the draft Protocol on trade in goods, the draft Protocol on trade in services, the draft protocol on rules and procedures on the settlement of disputes, and lastly, the draft Kigali declaration on the launch of the AfCFTA.

Amb. Dr. Namira Negm, the Legal Counsel of the African Union in her opening remarks welcomed the delegations on behalf of HE Moussa Faki Mahamat, the Chairperson of the AU Commission to the 2nd extra ordinary and noted that the AfCFTA is a historical step towards the integration of the African Continent. She stated that “The CFTA will liberalize the markets and bring together fifty-five African countries with a combined population of more than one billion people.” She further urged the delegates to reflect on the legal matters of the drafts before to ensure they are within the rules of the Union.

NOTE TO EDITOR
The STCs, which are technical organs of the Union, were established under Article 25 of the African Economic Community Treaty (the Abuja Treaty). With the transformation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union Commission (AUC), in order to have specialists from all corners of Africa discussing the cooperation in different fields to enhance the integration between the Member States of the Union.