美国国务卿蒂勒森星期四国际妇女节这一天在埃塞尔比亚首都亚的斯亚贝巴发表讲话时重点谈到女权话题。这是他在非洲为期六天的访问行程的第二天。
在与非洲联盟委员会主席穆萨·法基·穆罕默德联合举行的记者会上，蒂勒森还谈到了有关促进美非贸易的计划。
他说： “在贸易上，我们还支持非洲联盟为了降低洲内贸易壁垒、促进更多区域内贸易的地区经济一体化的努力，我们知道这一直是围绕着持续性的非洲大陆自由贸易协定进行谈判的核心目标，这也是我们相当支持的。我们期待在协议达成后，与非洲联盟更进一步的探讨如何通过这项协议让更多的美国私营企业也参与进来。”
蒂勒森的讲话结束后不久，川普总统就表示他将坚持对进口钢铝产品征收新的关税的计划。川普政府内的一些成员批评他的想法是保护主义和反自由贸易。
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is highlighting female empowerment on International Women's Day in Addis Ababa Thursday - the second of his six-day tour of Africa.
Joining (Moussa Faki) the chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission for a media briefing, Tillerson also spoke about initiatives aimed at boosting trade with Africa.
Tillerson said: "On trade, we also support the African Union's economic regional integration efforts to lower intra-trade barriers on the continent, boost more intra-regional trade - which we know has been a central goal of the negotiations around the constant Continental Free Trade Agreement, which we are quite supportive of. We look forward to engaging further with the African Union once that agreement is in place on how this will also promote greater participation of U.S. private sector business interests as well."
Tillerson's comments precede President Donald Trump's proposed new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, despite some of the members of his administration criticizing the idea as protectionist and anti-free trade.
