Intra-African Co-Operation

CM/Res. 123(IX)

INTRA-AFRICAN CO-OPERATION

The Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity, meeting in its Ninth Ordinary Session in Kinshasa, Congo, from 4 to 10 September 1967,

Noting that there are no organized trade flows on the continental scale in Africa,

Considering that this situation drastically impedes the expansion of the economies of the African countries, and that it can only perpetuate the economic independence of our continent upon the developed countries,

Convinced moreover that the winning of economic independence by each of our countries individually, and by Africa in general is absolutely indispensable to strengthening the sovereignty of our respective peoples,

Convinced lastly that the future of the OAU and the solidarity of the African peoples are indissolubly linked with the establishment and development of every kind of organized trade on a continental scale in Africa,

Noting that the diversity of tariff systems, the multiplication of customs barriers, the multiplicity of national currencies, the countless obstacles raised to prevent the free movement of people and goods, and the insufficiency or non-existence of adequate means of communication, tend to retard or render ineffective all solutions to this basic problem,

Welcoming the efforts exerted by the regional groupings with a view to developing conditions favourable to trade and industry within those groupings;

Convinced that the establishment and organization of these grouping constituted a step towards the realistic solution of the problem posed by the creation of an African common market, bur believing that development of these groupings must constitute a phase in the establishment of an expanded African market covering the entire continent;

INVITES the Administrative Secretary-General of the OAU to take all appropriate measures to study the conditions for establishing an intra -African