There has been cynicism and doubt about Africa’s capacity to launch the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Africa’s own authentic strategy to embrace development and inclusive growth. After years of vigorous negotiations among the member countries, the Agreement was due to commence on 1 July 2020. Unfortunately, the COVID 19 has derailed the scheduled launch of the AfCFTA fuelling doubts. The delay for the launch is valid as the African countries are busy fighting the Pandemic. Most of them are under lockdown with borders closed, flights grounded and are engrossed in planning containment measures. The African Union is also totally preoccupied with coordinating a Pan-African fight against the pandemic. There are technical snags too. These include the need to host a virtual meeting in the four official languages, of the African Union in six different time zones across Africa, guaranteeing strict confidentiality of the negotiation and so on and so forth.
But the delay has not dampened the enthusiasm of the newly elected secretary-general of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, Wamkele Mene. He is confident that the political commitment across the continent for AfCTA will lead to the goal sooner than later. Moreover, he regards AfCFTA, as a critical component of Africa’s recovery strategy.
The notable point is that the AfCFTA Secretariat and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention are exploring what could be done from a continental level to fight the pandemic-how to get goods to where they are most needed using the trade corridors. A list of essential goods such – soaps, sanitisers, personal protection equipment, etc has been compiled. Afcfta secretariat has mooted that these products should be allowed to transit through the trade corridors with a moratorium on duties, at least for the period of the pandemic. Such a move will be a significant step forward. Anyway, had the AfCFTA negotiations been completed as scheduled, some of these products would have been in the zero-rated duties zone. The main concern is that the products must be manufactured in Africa and must meet the rules of origin. Such an integrated and coordinated strategy will impact Africa’s unified fight against the pandemic and will empower Africa to emerge out of the post-COVID 19 economic downturn.
Mr. Mene feels that the only tool that can boost economic recovery post Pandemic is implementing the AfCFTA to boost intra-African trade and investor profile which means that the pandemic crisis offers an opportunity to fast track implementation of this agreement.
Meanwhile, African Development Bank (AFDB) has unveiled a strategic roadmap of projects and programmes to assist African countries to fight COVID 19 and also tackle the nutrition and food security aspects of the COVID-19. It is hoped that early closure of the allegations and controversies surrounding its president Akinwumi Adesina will allow the Bank to focus on AfCTA and its COVID strategy. Since AFDB is a major player in heralding free trade, the present limbo caused by US intervention should be resolved urgently before the election takes place in August
