AfCFTA Interview Transcript RL Vol XIII No 419 MMXIX

AfCFTA Interview Transcript

The African Continental Free Trade Area

Lessons from other free trade agreements in other parts of the world, navigating the political and economic differences, poor infrastructure, stability, synchronising AfCFTA with other continental integration schemes

Public Lecture – Respublica Litereria - RL Vol XIII No 419 MMXIX

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Former Chairperson of the AU Anti-Corruption Advisory Board

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Summary

One of the Key Decisions of the 32nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (January 2019) is that it endorsed the recommendations of African Union Ministers of Trade on Template on Tariff Liberalisation which will be used by Member States in preparing the AfCFTA Schedules of Tariff Concessions. The agreement was endorsed on March 21, 2018, by 44 African countries in Kigali, Rwanda. Free trade is an economic practice whereby countries can import and export goods without fear of government intervention. African countries can benefit from free trade by increasing their amount of or access to economic resources. Free trade agreements ensure small nations can obtain the economic resources needed to produce consumer goods or services. Free trade can improve the quality of life for a nation's citizens. Importing from neighbouring countries ensures a constant flow of goods that are readily available for consumption. Better foreign relations is usually an unintended result of free trade. African countries can also use free trade agreements to improve their military strength and their internal infrastructure, as well as to improve politically. African countries can use free trade to improve their production efficiency.

Infrastructure plays a key role in economic growth and poverty reduction. Conversely, the lack of infrastructure affects productivity and raises production and transaction costs, which hinders growth by reducing the competitiveness of businesses and the ability of governments to pursue economic and social development policies. The potential pitfalls are a major potential challenge in harmonising Africa’s heterogeneous politics and economies under one agreement is the wide variation that exists in their levels of development. Other challenges are through political, security, economic and cultural ties, former colonisers maintain a tight stranglehold in Francophone Africa, both to serve their interests and maintain a last bastion of imperial prestige. The complexities of the regional integration, the assumptions that are made on the basis of perceived necessities or demand underlie the question how does African states and the private sector go about to bring that change? Without comprehensive policy-making and preferential treatment for Africa’s most at-risk economies, the AfCFTA could prove to be a force for economic divergence, rather than a force for good. It is therefore important that participating countries build an efficient and participatory institutional architecture to avoid leaving any economies behind.

Key words: African Union, AfCFTA, Free trade, Infrastructure, former colonisers, Francophone
See interview here or https://www.academia.edu/38666167/AfCFTA_Interview_Transcript_RL_Vol_XIII_No_448_MMXIX