The African continent has become the world’s largest free trade area since the founding of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. The African Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) was the first step towards the creation of one of the world’s largest economic exchange zones and entered into force earlier this month. This treaty entails the creation of a single continental market for goods and services across 55 countries with a joint population of 1.2 billion people, three trillion dollars of joint GDP, as well as a customs union with free movement of capital and travellers. Africa will thus become one of the largest markets on a continent where 62% of exports are only raw materials.
The new agreement corrects the mismatch between African countries and the lack of internal trade on the continent. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, it will increase the continent’s domestic trade by more than 50% by 2022. According to Kwesi Quartey, the African Union (AU) spokesman: “Promoting intra-African trade is the most effective way to bring growth and development to the continent”.
The Africanist organization aims to create a tariff-free common market for all states on the continent in the future. It is inspired by the common market of the European Union, but what has been signed so far only commits to eliminating tax burdens on 90% of products, in other words, each country’s strategic products maintain their current tariff rate.
The European common market is the mirror in which we look at the ambitious Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) led by China, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty (TPP11) spearheaded by the US, and now the African Free Trade Agreement led by the African Union. Despite these challenges, Europe remains the only union of countries guaranteeing democracy, freedom and extraordinary legal certainty.
