By Mariatou Ngum
The Trade Minister of The Gambia and the Commerce Miniter of Senegal have agreed to the implementation of the Trade and Transit Cooperation Agreement as well as the underlying protocols, in accordance with the spirit of ECOWAS, as they signed a joint communiqué that covered a two-day meeting of experts, on the 16th and 17th of July 2024.
The communiqué was signed during the second session of the Joint Trade Cooperation Committee meeting between Senegal and The Gambia on July 19, 2024 in Saly Portudal, Senegal, under the joint leadership of Dr. Sérigne Gueye Diop, Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Republic of Senegal, and Hon. Baboucarr O. Joof, Minister of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration, and Employment of the Republic of The Gambia.
The duo expressed their desire to spare no effort in strengthening trade and industrial development through the promotion of investment, in compliance with ECOWAS provisions.
The meeting was part of the process of concretising the two heads of state’s oft-repeated common desire to elevate to a strategic level the cooperation between the two countries, which are closely bonded by geography, history, culture, and economy.
It could be recall that Minister Joof on 10th of May 2024 visited Dakar to discuss with his Senegalese counterpart the constraints to the development of trade between the two countries, which relate to the free movement of goods, customs procedures, development of value chains, promotion of investments and industrial development, among others.
Minister Joof thanked the ECOWAS Commission for their support, which he observed demonstrates their commitment to regional integration. According to him, the commitment cannot be lip service anymore; that they want to see practical activities between the two countries that change the livelihoods of their people.
Promoting and facilitating trade, he said, is only the way to promote development of their economies, as they create jobs for their youthful population. “We all know, is no longer theory; we all have seen practically how un-service youth populations can overturn peace and stability overnight into nightmares for populations,” he noted.
Dr. Serigne Gueye Diop, minister of Industry and Commerce of Senegal, said that the economic and trade dynamic has compelled their two countries to sign the trade agreements. “In fact, I am pleased to inform you that the volume of trade between the two countries translates certainly the vitality of trade cooperation between Senegal and Gambia”. Therefore, he said, it is necessary to recognise that trade potential needs to be exploited and as a result, they have to put away things to correct the situations and to raise the level of cooperation or trade between the two countries.
Meanwhile, the joint communique underlined several issues; notably the facilitation of market access for goods produced by the two parties through the application of the ECOWAS instruments such as the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), and also the facilitation of road transit, the establishment of a common Special Economic Zone (SEZ), the development of regional value chains such as cashew nuts, and the re-launch of the Senegambia Free Movement Day.
The communique in part reads: “The Ministers also recognised the existence of challenges linked to the development of cross-border trade between the two countries. They, thus, reaffirmed their commitment to implementing fully the ECOWAS Protocols on the free movement of goods and road transit. In this regard, they have instructed the administrations concerned to work together to facilitate the harmonisation of internal regulations concerning the trade in products and the recognition of commercial documents used as part of their trade in products.
They reiterated their desire to strengthen their cooperation in the field of investments through the establishment of a special common economic zone. They therefore decided to set up a working group responsible for reflecting on this issue.
The Ministers expressed their wish to cooperate in the development of the cashew value chain, with the inclusion of Guinea Bissau. They have also decided to establish a tripartite cooperation framework to address the common challenges that the three countries share in terms of developing not only the value chains but also of promoting the movement of goods”.
