Browsing: Trade tariffs

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is now widely touted as the African Union’s (AU) most audacious project. The framework ties together the most significant number of member countries of any trade agreement since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995.

The AfCFTA had become topical even before its formal launch. Members of the business community eagerly awaited the full implementation of the AfCFTA. But two years since its formal launch, how far has the AfCFTA ushered in the ‘new era’ of African integration it promised?…

The new tariff policy, which took effect on September 1, is applicable to mineral and agricultural imports from Chad, Central African Republic (CAR), Eritrea, Djibouti, Mozambique, Guinea, Rwanda, Togo, and Sudan.

It comes on the heels of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s declaration at the China-Africa summit held in 2021 that measures would be taken to increase agricultural imports from Africa.

Xi stated at the time that the goal was to increase continental imports to US$300 billion (€302 billion) in the next three years, ultimately reaching US$300 billion per year by 2035.

Africa, which continues to export raw materials to China, accounts for a small portion of China’s imports.…

Nations launched the AfCFTA as one of the actions made to support more extensive intra-African trade. The AfCFTA aspires to establish a unified continental market for goods and services. The agreement seeks to harmonise the continent’s various trade liberalization procedures and promote regional integration. Each African nation is a member of at least one of the continent’s approximately 30 bilateral or regional trade agreements.

Africa suffers from marginalization in the global trade system. Nevertheless, the African Regional Trade Agreements heralded a new age of economic integration with significant trade creation impacts. The path to free trade poses several significant obstacles and concerns that African governments must solve.…

Because EAC products have been denied preferential market access as a result of trade sanctions, intra-EAC trade is currently at a low of 15 per cent, which will worsen employment opportunities, market access, and the economies of scale of our sectors for East Africans as a whole.

NTBs not only increase the time and cost of doing business across borders, but they also reduce the competitiveness of EAC-produced goods.

NTBs persist and grow because of the lack of an effective EAC trade dispute settlement system (the EAC Trade Remedies Committee) and the poor speed of resolution of NTBs by the EAC Reginal Monitoring Committee (EMC). …

On the brighter side, this trade potential could double if African countries address challenges in infrastructure and corruption which have continually hampered the ‘Africa rising’ narrative. 

By making Africa the world’s largest trade area, the AfCFTA is expected to further improve Africa’s bargaining power with the rest of the world. This is with regard to the quality of goods produced as well as market entry of imported goods. …