General Objectives of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (Part 8 of 8)

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Theme 7 – (Establish the foundation for the African Customs Union)

 

One of the general objectives of the AfCFTA is to evolve the Agreement from a fully functional Free Trade Zone into a Continental Customs Union at a later stage. To distinguish between a (Continental Free Trade) Agreement and a Continental Customs Union, we like to think of that imaginary line that runs across the perimeter of the map of Africa as a point of context. When the (Continental Free Trade) Agreement is fully functional, any trade that happens within that perimeter will benefit from trade liberalisation concessions as agreed to between State Parties (subject to certain terms and conditions such as the origin of the product or service being from another African Country etc). With a Continental Customs Union however, any trade that happens between a Country inside that perimeter line and a Country outside the line (i.e. a non-African Country) will be subject to the rules of the Custom Union. Furthermore, the rules of the Customs Union will in theory apply universally to every Country inside the perimeter (e.g. negotiated tariffs will be on a continental and not on a per Country basis).

In addition to our (hopefully) very simple explanation, Article 1 of the (Continental Free Trade) Agreement defines a Continental Customs Union to mean the Customs Union at the continental level by means of adopting a common external tariff as provided by the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community of 1991.

 

Some History

 

Custom unions as we know them are not new to Africa. As a fun fact, did you know that the oldest custom union in the world is actually linked to the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and dates back to the 1889 Customs Union Convention between the British Colony of Cape of Good Hope and the Orange Free State Boer Republic? Well maybe you didn’t know this, but now you do.

Furthermore, about 21 years after this convention (1910), a new agreement was entered into that extended the convention to include the Union of South Africa and the British High Commission Territories (HCTs), i.e. Basutoland (Lesotho), Bechuanaland (Botswana), Swaziland (eSwatini), and South West Africa (Namibia) (Ref-5).

 

Last Thoughts

 

In conclusion, the benefits of an African Customs Union can only make the business, economic and Inter-Continental trade case for the Africa we want stronger especially in the context of a fully operational Continental Free Trade Area which is why we are unsure if it was not an oversight to officially exclude the African Customs Union as one of the Agenda 2063 flagship projects (that could kick start at a later date, following the stabilisation of the AfCFTA).

However the General objectives (Article 3 of the Agreement) of establishing the foundation of an African Customs Union suggests that the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement is really a test case for the African Customs Union. The degree to which the Agreement, its Protocols, Annexes, Phases etc. is progressively operationalised and the committees and institutions of administrations effectively execute their mandates will make or break the feasibility and continental buy in and support for the establishment of an African Customs Union.

 

References (Ref.)

Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area – African Union 

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/how-africa-can-feed-the-world/https://au.int/en/agenda2063/aspirations

African Continental Free Trade Area Question and Answers – United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Africa Union)

https://www.sacu.int/show.php?id=394

 

Useful Links

(UL)https://au.int/en/agenda2063/overview The Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) in Africa (A Human Rights Perspective) – United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

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