Hon. Baboucarr Ousmaila Joof, Minister of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment and Dr Serigne GUEYE DIOP, Minister of Industry and Commerce of Senegal have asked the 2nd Session of the Joint Committee for Commercial Cooperation between The Gambia and Senegal to do everything they can to correct the trade bottlenecks and consequently raise the level of trade between the two countries.
The 2nd session of the Joint Commercial Cooperation Committee held in Saly Portudal, was convened following the working and friendship visit that His Excellency Mr. Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar FAYE, President of the Republic of Senegal made on April 20, 2024 in The Gambia.
According to Minister Diop, this visit, as part of the perspective of consolidating ties of fraternal friendship between Dakar and Banjul, allowed the authorities of the two countries to reaffirm the priority they give to the perpetuation of friendly relations based on a common history and geography. In this context, Minister Diop noted: “Very advanced economic and commercial dynamics unite our two countries. To this end, I am pleased to note that the growing volume of trade between the two countries certainly reflects the vitality of commercial cooperation”.
However, Dr. Diop affirmed that it is necessary to recognise that this commercial potential is still largely underexploited. “As an illustration, the value of trade between our two countries is estimated at 113 billion FCFA in 2023, representing less than 5% of our overall trade, which seems anachronistic given the geographic and cultural proximity between the two countries,” he revealed. With this in mind, he said, several bilateral cooperation frameworks have been put in place at different levels for several years.
“First, at the highest level, the major directions of this cooperation are set out by the Senegalese-Gambian Presidential Council which met three times; in 2018, 2020 and 2023,” he stated. According to him, alongside this political orientation mechanism for cooperation between our two countries, other consultations or decision-making frameworks were put in place, with a view to exploring opportunities for economic partnership and promotion of bilateral trade.
In recent years, he observed, it has clearly become apparent that significant performances have been recorded in the context of the free movement of people and goods, with the implementation of the trade liberalization plan and respect for the principle of freedom of movement. goods, capital and people. Under the same register, he added, a bilateral transport agreement between the two countries was signed in 2018.
“In addition, efforts are constantly being made to ensure the full implementation and compliance of the various agreements that facilitate and strengthen trade between the two countries and in the ECOWAS region,” he noted.
Hon. Baboucarr Ousmaila Joof, Minister of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment also urged commitment to the promotion of trade between the two countries and for continuing engagement in order to change the situations of the two governments and peoples.
“As we move towards signing this landmarked communique, our citizenry are eagerly waiting for the outcomes of this meeting; they will hold us accountable for what we have signed, the results of our gathering will only be useful to them if we commit ourselves to translating words to action because that is the only way we can change their livelihood,” he noted.
Kolawole Sofola, the director of Tade for the Ecowas Commission, stated that over the years, the Ecowas Commission have been working with its member states to fulfil the Economic Integration Agenda of the community and a lot has been achieved in this regard including the liberalization of trade through the implementation of the Ecowas Trade Liberalization Scheme, the free movement of people within the region, development of critical infrastructure as well as interventions to boost intra-regional trade and access key international markets especially the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Despite the progress made, he said that the low level of intra-regional trade informs them that a lot more needs to be done in order to address obstacles to trade which hinders the free and efficient movement of goods and services across borders. “I am therefore here to stress the importance of the full implementation for various regional protocols and decisions as especially as it relates to trade,” he stressed.
