The TFTA: A step towards trade integration in Africa? (original) (raw)
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Continental Free Trade Area of Africa: Challenges and Prospects
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019
The Africa countries signed Abuja treaty, which entered into force in 1994, with the aim establish an African Economic Community composed of all African states using preexisting Regional Economic Communities as a building block over a period of 34 years and using six stages of integration. Despite such endeavors, however, the Africa's economy has remained fragmented, intraregional trade has remain low, and the integration has been shallow, inter alia, due to low level of infrastructure development, complexity arise out overlapping multiple membership in RECs, low industrial production, lack sufficient trade finance, and the state-centric nature of the integration efforts. The decision to establish the Continental Free Trade Area and Action Plan Boosting Intra-Africa Trade (BIAT) was adopted as means of fast tracking the integration process and boosting intra-Africa trade. The absence of clear rule on the status of RECs and the relationship between the existing regional economic communities and the to-be-formed African Economic community has also contributed to the uncertainty in the integration process and "spaghetti bowl effect" of RECs Free Trade Area. In view of these challenges, the formation of the Continental Free Trade Area is one of timely grand initiatives of African to solve the problem of African integration process. The multilateral trading system crisis with death of Doha Development Agenda and profleration of Mega Regional Agreements make Africa's Continental Free Trade Area a matter of necessity to survive in competitive globalized world. Despite the fact the CFTA's potential is promising, the task at hand is also immense. In light of the difficulties encountered by most of Africa's RECs in advancing their integration processes at the sub-regional level, one quickly realizes that establishing a functional single market between all 55 African Union (AU) member states will be uniquely complex. Finally yet importantly, the CFTA alone may not resolve the multifactor Africa's integration problem. Therefore, so as maximize the benefit of the CFTA, its operation shall be complemented by other initiatives like Action Plan on BIAT, NEPAD, and PIDA so as solve the others bottleneck of Africa's integration process like political instability, low industrial production, poor infrastructure and trade finance which may not addressed by the CFTA agreements.
Zamfara Journal of Politics and Development, Department of Political Science , 2022
The objective of this paper is to examine the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) of the African Union (AU) and to assess the challenges and prospects for regional integration in Africa in a post covid-19 era. The paper, which is qualitative in its approach, argues that the number of states accepting regional economic integration initiative such as the AfCFTA is one of the major features of globalization whose benefits have not been distributed equally. It also argues that though the AfCFTA is a pillar and beacon of continental wide integration in form of an African Economic Community (AEC) envisaged in the Abuja Treaty, however, the adoption of unrealistic and unfeasible timelines for implementation of the AEC pose serious challenges to regional integration for Africa. Regional integration in Africa seeks to transform Africa by addressing the fragmentation and division brought about by colonialism, and to promote unity and African development. While the AU argues that AfCFTA will boost intra-African economic integration through increased trade and investment, the extent to which African states would reap the benefits of the free trade area remains unclear. Numerous challenges that currently affect intra-African trade include, but not limited to, the low levels of development of African economies and their excessive dependence on primary commodity production and exports, protectionist trade policies, weak infrastructure, and high security risks. The outbreak of novel corona virus (COVID 19) pandemic threatens to reverse the gains made towards takeoff of the AfCFTA as African countries have diverted attention towards mitigation and containment of the spread of the virus in their individual countries. The reluctance of some African states such as Nigeria to sign the AfCFTA shows that not all African states are convinced that the promised continental benefits of free trade would align with their national interests. Some countries perceive the AfCFTA as a re-introduction of the earlier rejected contentious European Union's Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). The paper concludes that while most African countries may have signed the agreement, the implications on national economies would be considered by many before and even after ratification. It recommends that the African Union should protect the vital interests of member states by commissioning in-depth studies and to carry out further enlightenments on the AfCFTA. This will go a long way in transforming Africa's trade potentials to benefits for the growth and development of member states.
The African Continental Free Trade Area: The road ahead for the continent's bold integration project
Journal of International Trade Law and Policy, 2023
Purpose-The paper examines the road ahead for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), focusing on its potential opportunities and challenges. It is intended to help the AfCFTA's effective implementation by highlighting the major areas of intervention for State Parties. Approach-The paper analyses relevant economic, political and legal research sources on regional integration in Africa and offers some personal views of the author to evaluate the past, present and future of the AfCFTA. Findings-The paper shows that the AfCFTA can support its State Parties' industrialization and diversification, better integrate Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to regional value chains, create jobs, encourage sustainable investments, and help its State Parties have common positions on global issues and achieve development. But, it also shows the challenges facing the AfCFTA, which include infrastructure gap, revenue and job losses, overlapping membership of State Parties in Regional Economic Communities (RECs), cumbersome customs systems, difficulty to cross African borders, fledgling MSMEs and inadequate technical capacity on trade policy. Accordingly, it recommends that State Parties continuously take various actions to address these challenges and maximize the multiple benefits of the AfCFTA. Originality/value-The paper provides a comprehensive and up-to-date appraisal of the opportunities and challenges of the AfCFTA, both in the context of the history of regional integration in Africa and the recent global shocks that adversely impacted the continent (Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine).
Integration along the Abuja road map: A progress report
WIDER Working Paper
This paper reviews integration among the eight African Regional Economic Communities by comparing their characteristics and progress with three other South-South Regional Integration Arrangements. Three conclusions emerge: (i) slow progress towards meeting overly ambitious objectives; (ii) small changes in the destination of trade across all Regional Economic Communities, indicative of persistent high trade costs and few new manufactures products destined for geographically close markets; and (iii) compared with other South-South Regional Integration Arrangements, the Regional Economic Communities include a high number of provisions not covered in Word Trade Organization negotiations, but these have low legal enforceability. Reasons for this slow progress are explored in the paper.
A Step Closer: Economic Integration and the African Continental Free Trade Area
SSRN Electronic Journal
Post-colonial Africa views economic integration as an endogenous means for attaining self-reliant, sustainable development. Working under various regional and sub-regional economic institutions, states elaborated several norms in search of legitimacy in economic competence. However, several political and economic pathogens, including weak institutions, have blighted those efforts. This paper interrogates the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA or CFTA), which is the latest attempt to reboot the integration drive and achieve sustainable development. The CFTA seeks to create a geographic zone where goods and services will move freely among member states by removing trade distortions and boosting factor mobility, competition, and investment. After a rigorous analysis of the relevant normative instruments and examining the vertical and horizontal relationship between the CFTA and regional economic communities (RECs)/member states, the paper articulates some objective criteria for measuring the CFTA's effectiveness. It concludes that, if faithfully implemented, the CFTA could maximize utility and increase welfare. For the analysis and conclusions, the paper deploys principles of public international law as well as economic theories, with a blend of political and moral philosophy.
Towards the African Economic Community: Legal and Historical Perspectives
Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal, 2023
This article submits that the 1963 Charter of the Organisation of African Unity provided a legal foundation for continental economic integration. This was followed by successive declarations and legal agreements such as the Lagos Plan of Action, the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community and the Constitutive Act of the African Union, all of which became more explicit. While the Organisation of African Unity of 1963 and the African Union of 2002 respectively pronounced the direction of the continental organisations, the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community was then established to translate the vision into actionable activities towards a continental economic community through the establishment of the Regional Economic Communities that would ultimately be the foundation blocks for the integration of the continent. The article shows that all the Regional Economic Communities have a strong legal appeal to achieve African unity and the desire to integrate African economies. Consequently, the African Union has to date attained a continental Free Trade Area and is still to attain a continental customs union and the common market using the same legal architecture, these being stages in developing an African Economic Community. The article also demonstrates that the various Regional Economic Communities owe their existence to the Charter of the Organisation of African Unity or the Lagos Plan of Action or the Abuja Treaty, all under the umbrella of the Constitutive Act of the African Union.
Challenges facing economic integration: a case study of Eastafrica community(EAC) 2000–2012
2014
The East Africa Community (EAC) is one of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in Africa, with integration in the region dating back to pre-colonial times. However, the integration process has achieved less than desired as witnessed with the collapse of the previous EAC in 1977. This study critically reviews the challenges facing economic integration in the EAC by first tracing the history of the integration process, its successes and failures, and identifies the challenges of the present EAC economic integration process. The major conclusions that emerge from the study are: First, the overlapping REC's membership by partner states continue to posing harmonization and coordination challenges. In addition this indicates a lack of political commitment among partner states. Second, the EAC institutions are weak as they lack the capacity to enforce sanctions against partner states who fail to implement agreements. The selection process of the members of these institutions is not democratic as they are handpicked by partner states with the absence of the citizens' views. Finally, issues of Non-Trade barriers (NTBs), poor infrastructure and limited private sector engagement are an impediment to economic growth in the region. These problems seem to have made building a successful integration process a daunting task for the EAC, despite its perceived importance in the increasingly globalized world. Thus, partner states need to take integration not only as a pan-African ideology but more importantly as economic survival strategy. vi ABBREVIATIONS AFRICAN UNION African Union CET Common External Tariff COMESA Common Market East and Southern EABC East African Business Council EAC East Africa Community EACJ East Africa Court of Justice EACSO East African Common Services EAHC East African High Commission EALA East Africa Legislative Assembly ECCAS Economic Community of Central African States ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States EEC European Economic Community EPA Economic Partnership Agreement EU European Union FDI Foreign Direct Investments FTA Free Trade Agreement GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade GDP Gross Domestic Product LPA Lagos Plan of Action MFN Most-Favour Nation NBT Non Trade Barriers OAU Organisation of Africa Unity PTA Preferential Trade Agreements REC Regional Economic Community RIA Regional Integration Agreements RTA Regional Trade Agreements SADC Southern African Development Cooperation vii LIST OF TABLES