With the submission of instruments of ratification by the Saharawi Republic and Sierra Leone to the African Union last week, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has attained the minimum threshold for it to enter into force. African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat hailed the two deposits as a timely and significant move to remove the fragmentation of African economies and markets. He said “The two deposits meet the minimum threshold of ratifications required under Article 23 of the AfCFTA Agreement for it to enter into force thirty days after the deposit of the twenty-second deposit made by the Saharawi Republic. The AfCFTA Agreement will in this regard enter into force on May 30.”This implies that from July, Africans will be free to trade, work and move freely within the continent without restrictions. The Chairperson
It is expected that ahead of the planned Extra-Ordinary summit of the heads of state and the government on AfCFTA slated for July 7, the African Union and African Ministers of Trade will finalize work on supporting instruments to facilitate the launch of the AfCFTA. Rules of origin, schedules of tariff concessions on trade in goods, online non-tariff barriers monitoring and elimination mechanism, digital payments, and settlement platform, and African Trade Observatory Portal are some of these supporting instruments. The Ministerial meeting is scheduled in Kampala Uganda in the first week of June. It may be recalled that the continental free trade area was signed by almost 50 countries at the AU Summit in March 2018. The goal of AfCFTA is to transform Africa into one single market of 1.2 billion people, with a GDP of $2.5 trillion, and potential to boost intra-African trade by 52 percent by 2020.
