It has been widely reported that on the 01st of January 2021, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement came into effect. While this statement is true, it does not tell the whole story.
In terms of article 3 of the (Continental Free Trade) Agreement, the principal objective of the protocol on Trade in goods is to create a liberalised market across the continent.
One of the specific objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement is to progressively eliminate tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade goods.
One of the Specific objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement is for State Parties to cooperate on customs matters and the implementation of trade facilitation measures (Article 4 of the Agreement). This Annex delves into the very heart of this objective.
The objective of this Annex is to enable State Parties to work together to identify, categorise, monitor and subsequently eliminate Non-Tariff Barriers.
In our concluding remarks for the Technical barriers to trade, we pointed out that no amount of Free Trade Concessions is worth the compromise on safety and quality.
One potential victim to International Trade Agreements is Domestic Industries. This is because Trade agreements tend to lower the barrier to entry into a domestic market. This is where Trade remedies come in as they are actions available to Domestic Governments to act against imports which may be causing material injury to the Domestic Industry.
The Protocol of Trade in Goods objectives is very much aligned and perhaps a subset of the Specific Objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (See Article 4 of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement).
The development of value chains is an interesting objective because, in order to boost intra-African trade under the (Continental Free Trade Area) Agreement, there will have to be an intentional effort to boost intra-African value chains.
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