Fostering an open economy in Africa

The future of Africa's development lies in the hands of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their ability to expand across the continent. These are the enterprises that will create most of the private sector jobs for a rapidly-growing labour force. In an open economy, these SMEs can internationalize and meet surging demand for products and services in Africa and beyond.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328938908_Fostering_an_Open_Economy_in_AfricaPublished versionPublished versio

Dispute Settlement under the African Continental Free Trade Area

Article 20 AfCFTA establishes a Dispute Settlement Mechanism, the Protocol on Rules and Procedures on the Settlement of Disputes (‘the AfCFTA DSM Protocol’; ‘Protocol’) and a Dispute Settlement Body (‘DSB’) for resolving disputes between State Parties. The AfCFTA dispute settlement mechanism is a central element of the AfCFTA as it provides security and predictability to the regional trading system (Art 4 AfCFTA-DSM Protocol). The AfCFTA dispute settlement mechanism will ‘preserve the rights and obligations of State Parties under the Agreement and clarify the existing provisions of the Agreement in accordance with customary rules of interpretation of public international law’ (Art 4(1) AfCFTA-DSM Protocol). Accordingly, the AfCFTA dispute settlement mechanism has the potential to enhance the integrity and efficiency of the whole AfCFTA trading system. This entry focuses on the AfCFTA dispute settlement mechanism. In the ensuing sections, this submission reflects on that mechanism from a historical, procedural, comparative, and critical perspective. Where necessary, it highlights areas of improvement that may better position the dispute settlement mechanism to facilitate the objectives of the AfCFTA

KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTION OF LIBERIAN AGRIBUSINESSES IN THE AFRICAN CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA (AfCFTA)

Liberia has signed and ratified AfCFTA and is pending deposit with the African Union Commission. The objective of the paper thus is to examine the knowledge, and perception of Liberian agribusinesses on AfCFTA. The primary data were obtained from four (4) main categories of stakeholders in Liberia’s economic growth and development. They included (i) agribusiness enterprises/agricultural micro-small- and medium-sized enterprises operating in Monrovia; (ii) apex business entities/associations; (iii) government actors and (iv) partnerships in trade and development in Liberia. Findings from engagements with agribusinesses revealed that even though few respondents had a fair understanding of the Rules of Origin protocol, central to trading under AfCFTA, most of the respondents knew or had heard about the AfCFTA and mostly associated AfCFTA with creating one African market. Concentration on AfCFTA in Liberia should not only be on the removal of tariffs as the removal of tariffs is perceived by agribusiness as bad

Report on the African continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), By H.E. Mahamadou Issoufou, President of the Republic of Niger and leader on AFCFTA

Assembly of the Union Thirty-Second Ordinary Session 10-11 February 2019 Addis Ababa, EthiopiaThis report on the status of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), by H.E. Mahamadou Issoufou, president of the Republic of Niger and leader on AfCFTA outlines activities undertaken under the oversight of African Union Ministers of Trade since the July 2018 Summit till the February 2019 Summit and discusses emerging developments affecting the AfCFTA implementation. It also carries AfCFTA Negotiations: Road Map for Finalization of Outstanding Work on Phase 1 and Conclusion of Phase II as Annex 1, Annex 2, draft guidelines for services negotiations under the AfCFTA protocol on trade in services and the draft decision on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA

Implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA): policies, regulations, laws and institutions required for development

On 26 May 2013 at the 21st Ordinary Assembly of the African Union's Assembly, African heads of state and governments adopted a solemn declaration for the continent's development. This prompted, in 2015, the official launch of a 50-year blueprint (i.e. Agenda 2063) for the re-creation of the region through a people-driven process into one that is integrated, prosperous and defined by inclusive growth and sustainable development. This blueprint has 15 flagship projects for effectuating the aim of continental growth, transformation, and development. One of these flagship projects is the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Africa's most ambitious attempt at integration and development since the formation of the African Union, and the subject of this research. The AfCFTA is an African Union member-state driven free trade area, founded on theories of trade, and driven by Pan-African values that promise an endogenous pathway to inclusive and sustainable development. The initiative, once fully operational, will have the effect of integrating the continent for the first time under one regime of liberalisation that covers goods, services, intellectual property, investment, competition, and digital trade, among others. It is submitted, however, that trade integration alone may not provide enough stimulus for the holistic development that the region deeply requires. Development, imposes (in addition to increasing trade by operationalising the AfCFTA) an imperative for building regulatory and institutional capacity and (where necessary) reforming the trade governance processes in the state parties. It is against this background that this study probes into the implementation of the AfCFTA in the context of select case studies; Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia. The study combined doctrinal research with empirical methods that utilised semi-structured interviews with public and private sector stakeholders from the three countries. The thesis is structured into two parts. The first one outlines the theoretical and analytical framework as a means of situating the AfCFTA in the broader conversation on development, international trade, and regional integration whilst also reflecting it as a unique and Pan-African expression of same. The second examines the mentioned case studies through the lens of the Analytical Law and Developmental Integration Model (ALDIM) developed by the researcher. The study found that a developmental implementation of the AfCFTA by the three countries that have been selected as case studies would require responses ranging from a shift in development thinking and the creation of value-driven trade policy frameworks to more pragmatic steps such as the creation of institutional mechanisms for cohesive trade policy formulation and governance, the strengthening of existing institutions, and the institutionalisation of collaboration for a more inclusive trade policy governance. Ultimately, the study advances projections on how regional integration initiatives could yield development outcomes in domestic settings in the context of African states, thereby affirming the influence of trade as an agent for modernisation and the positive alteration of governance processes

Report of the 2nd ordinary session of the STC on Trade, Industry and Minerals, 08-12 January 2019, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Executive council Thirty-Fourth Ordinary Session 07 - 08 February 2019 Addis Ababa, EthiopiaReport of the Second Meeting of the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Trade, Industry and Minerals at Ministerial level held from 11-12 January 2019 to consider the draft continental strategies and various technical reports and presentations in the areas critical to supporting the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Among the agenda items during the meeting, were election of the bureau, entry force of the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area and its implementation

Leveraging land and water sector reforms for trade: Constraints and opportunities for women producers in Zimbabwe

Trade liberation and the creation of a single continental market of goods and services through the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will create huge economic benefits for economic growth and development across the continent. Nonetheless, the gender-differentiated effects of trade liberalisation resulting in the unequal distribution of benefits and costs of trade policies between women and men are well documented. International trade interacts with gender in different ways as conditioned by the distinct economic roles and positions of women and men within agricultural values chains. Adopting a Transformative Social Policy (TSP) framework––an approach to social policy placing emphasis on enhancing the productive capacities of individuals, households and communities; reconciling the social reproductive burdens of society with other social tasks and an ex-ante approach to poverty and vulnerability––the papers seeks to illuminate possible context-specific pathways through which women agricultural producers can be promoted to take advantage of market opportunities engendered by the implementation of AfCFTA. Preliminary evidence suggests that access to productive agricultural water by women, in a largely arid and drought-prone district, had not only enhanced their productive capacities but can be leveraged to take advantage of the trade opportunities coming with the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. The Zimbabwean case provide starting points to think how African women can take advantage of the emerging continental economic opportunities, not as wage workers as been the trend but producers for regional and international markets

Expected impact of the African Continental Free Trade Area on food security

This chapter estimates the potential impact of the AfCFTA on the agriculture sector by means of a detailed partial equilibrium model using recently available tariff schedules for African countries. The impact is forecast to be relatively small over the short-run timespan that is covered by the modelling approach. Intra-African trade in the sector as a whole is expected to increase by 5.4 per cent, equivalent to $1,015 million annually, in a scenario of full tariff liberalisation under the AfCFTA. These results are modest, but consistent across all tests of the model to parameter sensitivity analyses, and reflect a scenario in which all trade is liberalised, without recourse to product exclusions (in reality some of this trade may be excluded from liberalisation and the impact of the AfCFTA may be limited further)