The recent seaport agreement will enable Ethiopia to properly benefit from the emerging BRICS market, Trade and Regional Integration Gebremeskel Challa told ENA.
Recall that Ethiopia, along with the other four new member countries, joined the BRICS on January 1, 2024; and the MoU between Ethiopia and Somaliland was signed on January 1, 2024.
In an exclusive interview with ENA, Trade and Regional Integration Minister Gebremeskel Challa noted that BRICS is a growing bloc that consists 36 percent of the world’s economy.
The bloc has also countries with large population and geography, and the addition of the five new member countries will even make it stronger, he added.
BRICS comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. With the accession of Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates this month, the membership has doubled.
The bloc is bringing the global market system from the previous uni-polar to at least two options. It has huge ever-increasing share from economic perspective at the global level. In multilateral stage, these countries have provided various products to the global market.
Based on the countries modality and agreement as well as their large population, the bloc is expected to entertain huge trade transaction, the minister elaborated.
The bloc will increase the empowerment of Ethiopia with massive significance in terms of making the economy grow, increasing competency and ensuring the balance of competition globally as well as increasing the source of finance from single source to two, he stated.
Gebremeskel said Ethiopia will definitely benefit from such a huge market with its industry products and agricultural products.
The recent seaport agreement with Somaliland and its membership in BRICS will enable Ethiopia to benefit a lot by exporting and importing goods at fair price to the member countries.
Regarding the preparation of the country to properly benefit from other trade blocs, the minister pointed out that as a member of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Ethiopia has submitted tariff offers for goods and is in the process of joining World Trade Organization.
For the minister, the recent agreement with Somaliland to secure a seaport will have great significance in shipping the nation’s products to member countries of the BRICS and to import goods at fair prices from those countries.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Partnership and Cooperation signed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Muse Bihi Abdi in Addis Ababa on January 1, 2024 includes wide scopes of cooperation in social, economic, political and military fields.
It gives Ethiopia the opportunity to obtain a permanent and reliable naval base and commercial maritime service in the Gulf of Aden through a lease arrangement, while Somaliland gets share from Ethiopian Airlines.
Source:ENA
