The Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is now the world’s largest free trade area since the foundation of the World Trade Organization. It draws all 55 African Union (AU) member states (excluding Eritrea, yet to sign the landmark accord) together to cover a market of more than 1.2 billion people, including a rising middle class and a combined GDP of $2.6 trillion.
The AfCFTA aims at accelerating intra-African trade and boosting Africa’s trading position in the global market by making Africa a single market of 1.2 billion people and a cumulative GDP of over $3.4 trillion, thereby strengthening Africa’s voice and policy space in global trade negotiations
The agreement is expected to lower tariffs between member countries and cover policy areas like trade facilitation and services and regulatory steps like sanitary standards and technical trade barriers.
Read this Background Presentation to learn more about the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.
