1.jpg)
After the extension with the Caribbean countries, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has entered into an agreement with the United States of America, signed during the United States-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington from 13 to 15 December 2022. This partnership aims to strengthen commercial cooperation and boost trade between the two entities.
The United States of America intends to take advantage of the AfCFTA to boost trade with the African continent. On the sidelines of the summit of US-Africa heads of state held in Washington from 13 to 15 December 2022, AfCFTA Secretary General Wankele Mene signed an agreement with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai. The agreement, which comes at a time of renewed interest in Africa, will revitalise commercial cooperation and boost trade between the two parties.
Increase revenues by 10%, increase the contribution of intra-African trade to Africa's GDP by 450 billion dollars and the direct beneficiary of all these statistics will be small and medium-sized enterprises dominated by African women and young people.
Wankele Mene, Secretary General of the AfCFTA
The United States' share of trade with Africa is small compared to that of other players such as China, the main commercial player on the African continent. For example, trade between the United States and Africa amounted to $64 billion in 2021, compared with $254 billion with China over the same period. The signing of this agreement should enable the United States to boost its trade revenues with Africa.
“The Biden-Harris administration recognizes that today's trade challenges cannot be met without Africa's contribution and leadership, and our support for the AfCFTA is an integral part of that. This MoU is the result of a year of hard work and negotiations to commemorate the importance we attach to the AfCFTA. It stems from a mutual desire to develop a lasting partnership between the U.S. Government and the AfCFTA Secretariat.”
Katherine Tai, Trade Representative
United States
Faced with the dynamism of Asian economies, particularly that of China, which is increasingly present on the African continent, and the need to win more markets, the imperative to trade more widely is imperative. The United States, for example, has set up the ‘Build Back Better World’ initiative to compete with China's ‘Belt and Road Initiative’. Africa has immense potential and investment opportunities to seize, but as President Biden believes, the future is Africa, and Africa's success will have an impact on that of the world.
This forum is about forging links and doing business. Above all, it is about the future, our common future. We've known for a long time that Africa's success and prosperity are essential to ensure a better future for all of us, not just Africa. We have seen very clearly the enormous potential that we could unlock if we did it together. And holding the first summit of its kind in 2014 was a decisive moment to think about new kinds of partnerships between our nations, partnerships not to create political obligations, but to stimulate shared success - I stress “shared success”- and opportunities. Because when Africa succeeds, the United States succeeds, and to be honest, the whole world succeeds too...’.
Joe Biden, President of the Republic of the United States
The AfCFTA is a major factor in Africa's development prospects. It is expected to bring significant economic and social benefits to the continent, raising incomes, reducing poverty and, above all, accelerating economic growth. The AfCFTA was extended to the Caribbean at the Afro-Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum from 1-3 September 2022 in Bridgetown, Barbados.