Ethiopia, Sudan to Conclude Preferential Trade AccordThe governments of Ethiopia and Sudan are expected to meet and conclude a preferential trade agreement in the coming weeks, the weekly Capital newspaper reported Sunday.The consultative meeting, which will be held in Khartoum, capital of Sudan, will deal with, among others, issues concerning the exemption of some items from customs duty. The two countries plan to decide on the commodities to be exempted. It is said that some 180 commodities have been listed for duty exemptions in each country. While the negotiation is on the way, Ethiopia is said to have started importing and exporting goods through Port Sudan to apparently maximize its Red Sea outlet. The highway linking the port with Gadarif, Sudan's border town with Ethiopia, has already been completed and goods are being shuttled from there without any problem, said an official with the Sudanese embassy in Addis Ababa. The official disclosed that a state-owned company that handles most of Ethiopia's foreign trade is planning to build warehouses at Gadarif. Ethiopia has moved its flow of import and export goods to Djibouti from the Eritrean ports Massawa and Assab following the two-year border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Ethiopian government has reportedly been studying the feasibility of building a 2000-kilometer railway to link Port Sudan with Ethiopia, with the line crossing the border Gallaba and Metema, and passing southwards to eventually link the existing Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway with Moyale on Ethiopia's southern border with Kenya. |
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