AU’s Specialised Technical Committee begins with focus on developing Integrated Value Chains

PRETORIA - The 4th African Union (AU) Specialised Technical Committee (STC) on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration is taking place virtually from 17 to 21 May 2021.

Trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement finally kicked off on 1 January 2021 after delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of the pandemic caused global havoc, disrupting supply chains and generating setbacks for African economies. This has particularly affected cross-border trade, negatively impacted investment, commodity prices and detracting over a decade of Africa’s development.

The main objective of the STC is to develop concrete policy actions and measures required for developing Integrated and Complementary Value Chains, for sustainable recovery and reinforcing operationalisation of the AfCFTA, for consideration and approval by the African Union (AU) Summit.

This year’s theme is Developing integrated and complementary value chains for sustainable recovery and reinforcing operationalization of the AfCFTA.

Furthermore, the 5th High-Level Tax Policy Dialogue (NEXUS), in collaboration with the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), the AUC and the African Development Bank (AfDB), was hosted from 5-6 May where critical issues such as the need for digitisation of systems as critical for any meaningful progress by tax administrations were highlighted.

The meeting appreciated the High-Level Tax Dialogue and urged both the AUC and ATAF to continue the efforts in bringing together relevant stakeholders to debate salient tax issues while building a NEXUS between tax policy and tax administrators.

The concept of a continental platform on tax is one of the agenda items discussed by the STC Experts meeting. It’s important to recall that this is as a result of an assignment given to both ATAF and the AUC at the extra ordinary STC meeting in December 2020.

The discussions from NEXUS have thus continued and evolved at the STC meeting.

With focus on “Developing integrated and complementary value chains for sustainable recovery and reinforcing operationalization of the AfCFTA”, the meeting will address, among others, the following key issues:

• Global Value Chains (GVCs) Conceptual framework;
• Regional and global value chains in Africa;
• Opportunities and challenges for value chain Integration in Africa;
• Developing integrated and complementary continental value chains;
• Digitalize African value chains;
• Reinforcing public and private finance for investment in African value chains.

Therefore, a key expected outcome is the formation of a Sub-Committee of the STC on Tax and the elimination of Illicit Financial Flows in Africa.