GTAP Resources: Resource Display
| GTAP Resource #6655 |
|---|
|
"The African Continental Free Trade Area: harnessing Benefits, Opportunities and addressing Challenges for Central Africa" by Mastaki Namegabe, Jean Luc Abstract The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was put in place on 1st January 2021 with a view to integrate all African States into a free trade area. The better integrated continental market will bring together several African countries and cover a market of over 1.2 billion people and a gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 2.5 trillion. The AfCFTA will liberalize and facilitate a single market for goods and services, including the free movement of people and capital. It would contribute to sustainable and inclusive socioeconomic development, gender equity and, more broadly, lead to increased competitiveness and industrial development, for a continent which trades with itself for only 16 – 18% of its total trade. Most of the continent’s trade is with the rest of the world and concentrates on exports of raw materials.It is widely agreed that AfCFTA will have to be supported with accompanying measures and policies. For many countries, improving productive capacities and promoting investment for value addition are prerequisite for taking advantage of the single market created by AfCFTA. Complementary policies are needed in addressing supply constraints and competitiveness, technical barriers to trade and trade facilitation mechanisms, including compliance with International Standard Setting Bodies requirements and introducing a simplified and harmonized trade regime, especially for cross-border trade.. Empirical analysis of the economic effects of the AfCFTA, using GECM underline that in the long run, to fully leverage the economic opportunities of the AfCFTA, Central African policy makers would need to adopt supporting policies to encourage structural transformation moving therefore beyond the current extractivism towards more value addition and transformation of their natural resources. |
| Resource Details () | GTAP Keywords | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
- Economic development - Preferential trading arrangements - Africa (Central) |
| Attachments |
|---|
|
If you have trouble accessing any of the attachments below due to disability, please contact the authors listed above.
Public Access No documents have been attached. Restricted Access No documents have been attached. Special Instructions No instructions have been specified. |
| Comments (0 posted) |
|---|
|
You must log in before entering comments.
No comments have been posted. |
Last Modified: 4/3/2026 2:02:25 PM
