And it couldn`t have come at a better time. As a collective, the continent is embarking on a new economic path. In 2018, African heads of state signed an agreement that would revive the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a revolutionary change in Africa`s regional and international trade. When it gradually comes into force in the coming months and years, AfCFTA will cover a market of more than 1.2 billion people and up to $3 trillion in GDP, with the potential to increase intra-African trade by more than 50%, according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa. According to the World Bank, the agreement could add $76 billion in revenue to the rest of the world. Once completed, AfCFTA will become the largest free trade area in the world since the creation of the World Trade Organization. The implementation of afCFTA, although delayed by the COVID 19 pandemic, is expected to resume in January 2021, with the initial focus on facilitating trade for small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for 90% of the jobs created on the continent. But the world that AfCFTA will address in January will be very different from the world in which it was conceived. There are more challenges than ever before, thanks in part to the economic destruction of the pandemic – ”an unprecedented health and economic crisis,” said the International Monetary Fund, ”which threatens to take the region off, reverses the progress of recent years and slows the region`s growth prospects in the years to come.” In March 2018, three separate agreements were signed at the 10th African Union extraordinary meeting on AfCFTA: the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, the Kigali Declaration; and the protocol on the free movement of people. The Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons aims to create a visa-free zone within AfCFTA countries and to support the creation of the African Union passport. [27] At the Kigali Summit on 21 March 2018, 44 countries signed the AfCFTA, 47 signed the Kigali Declaration and 30 signed the protocol on the free movement of persons. Although a success, there were two remarkable holdouts: Nigeria and South Africa, the two largest economies in Africa. [28] [29] [30] Maria Filipa Seara e Pereira advises the World Bank in the Trade Regional Integration Unit (ETIRI).
dec 09
Free Trade Agreement African Union
Permalänk till denna artikel: http://www.stocketriathlon.se/?p=13096
Vår sponsor
Rabatt
Hos Löplabbet i Umeå erbjuds alla medlemmar i Stöcke TS Järnet 20% rabatt på allt i butiken förutom elektronik där det är 10% rabatt. Gäller ordinarie priser.