The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (“AfCFTA Agreement”) is set to come into effect on the 30th of May 2019, after two more countries deposited their instruments of ratification at the African Union.
In a press statement, the African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat confirmed that the two deposits met the minimum threshold of ratifications required under Article 23 of the AfCFTA Agreement for it to enter into force thirty days after the twenty second deposit.
The AfCFTA Agreement seeks to establish a single market for goods and services that will boost industrialisation, infrastructural development, economic diversification and trade. It commits governments to remove tariffs on ninety per cent (90%) of goods produced within the continent and phase out the tariffs progressively.
The AfCFTA also covers issues on non-tariff barriers, technical barriers to trade, customs procedures and a framework on transit issues between countries.
In theory, the AfCFTA Agreement is expected to allow for the free movement of goods and people within the continent without tariff and border restrictions. However, there is need to implement initiatives that will facilitate movement of goods across borders by relaxing border-entry rules.
This AfCFTA Agreement is a step towards the right direction in terms of encouraging intra-regional trade and cooperation amongst African nations.
All that is left is for the African Union and African Ministers of Trade to finalise work on supporting instruments to facilitate the launch of the operational phase of the AfCFTA. The supporting instruments comprise rules of origin, schedules of tariff concessions on trade in goods, online non-tariff barriers monitoring and elimination mechanism, digital payments and settlement platform and African Trade Observatory Portal.
The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement can be found here.
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