The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the largest single market project in Africa, officially began operations on 01 January 2021. However, the process of negotiating the rules that will govern the zone is ongoing, and experts note that full implementation could still take years.
Approximately 90% of the rules of origin scheduled to come into force under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) have already been agreed upon. This announcement was made this week by Silver Ojakol, Chief of Staff at the AfCFTA Secretariat.
According to him, negotiations between member countries have accelerated rapidly since most African Union countries signed the Agreement to create the AfCFTA. A large majority of the rules of origin (which determine the origin of goods entering a customs territory) have already been approved, and “the remaining 10% must therefore be completed by July this year”, Silver Ojakol told Reuters news agency.
Officially coming into force on 01 January 2021, the AfCFTA is a project for a single continental market bringing together 1.3 billion potential consumers with an estimated GDP of $3.4 trillion. Under the terms of the agreement that created it, member countries have committed to progressively eliminating 90% tariff lines over the next five to ten years, in order to create a truly free trade area.
The area's operationalisation, originally scheduled for 01 July 2020, had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, despite raising many hopes on the continent, the AfCFTA is far from being able to immediately provide the necessary solutions for the development of intra-continental trade in Africa.
According to several experts, the success of this single market will largely depend on the continent's ability to bridge its infrastructure deficit, estimated at between 130 and 170 billion a year. What's more, given the difficulties associated with the divergence of interests between countries, its full implementation could still take several years.
It should be noted that 41 of the 54 member states of the areas have submitted tariff reduction programs under the AfCFTA. According to Silver Ojakol, “by the end of June 2021, we should have completed tariff programming with rules of origin”.
Moutiou Adjibi Nourou