Preparations for African Free Trade Area Underway

The Government is preparing for the upcoming launch of the Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) that comes into effect 1stJuly 2020, according to Minister for Commerce, Trade and Industry Christopher Yaluma. 

Brokered by the African Union (AU) the AfCFTA will be effective as of July after three years of negotiations. It establishes a continent-wide market that allows the free movement of travellers and capital, and it is hoped that the agreement will fuel economic growth and job creation, as well as strengthening Africa’s position as a key player in international trade.

Bringing together 1.27 billion people and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$2.6 trillion, its 54 members are required to remove tariffs from 90% of goods in order to facilitate the creation of the single market. 

Intra-Africa exports represented just 16.6% of total exports in 2017, compared with 68% in Europe and 59% in Asia. However, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the AfCFTA agreement could boost intra-African trade by more than 50% by 2022.

The agreement to forge a free trade area was initially made in 2012 at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa with a view to realising the ambition by 2017. The project forms a key part of the AU’s 2063 Agenda and ambitions to boost intra-African trade. Eritrea is the only African county not to have signed the agreement.

Ahead of then the Government must ratify the agreement that was signed by President Edgar Lungu in Ethiopia last year.