The African Continental Free Trade Area and Related Issues: Opportunities for Pakistan's Economic diplomacy and Development.

Byline: Christo Janse Van Noordwyk

The Assembly of Heads of States of the African Union launched the operational phase of the AfCFTA on 7 July 2019. Fiftythree of the 55 African Union (AU) member states have now signed the Agreement (waiting for Eritrea and Benin) and it has entered into force, with 24 countries ratifying it. It is one of the flagship programmes of the AU Agenda 2063, which is a blueprint for Africa's sustainable development. The AfCFTA aspires to deepen the integration of the Continent, beyond merely a free trade area. Among its objectives are to "create a liberalized market. Through successive rounds of negotiations," "lay the ground for the establishment of a Continental Customs Union" and "contribute to the movement of capital and natural persons."

The AfCFTA is essentially a system of protocols, rules and procedures on trade, simplified customs procedures as well as dispute resolution mechanisms all aimed at creating a single market and legal framework for trade in goods and services and for investment in the Continent. Once fully operationalised, Africa will be one of the world's largest single markets, with around 1.2 billion people, a cumulative GDP The African Continental Free Trade Area and Related Issues: Opportunities for Pakistan's Economic diplomacy and Development Christo Janse Van Noordwyk of around $3.2 trillion and total consumer and business spending of over $4 trillion, across all 55 member States of the African Union (AU). It is also a highly dynamic market, and increasingly urbanised. Africa's consumer class is already more than 300 million and heavily concentrated in a handful of large metropolitan areas such as Cairo, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos and Luanda; and whose consumption is expected to hit $2.2 trillion by 2030. By 2050, it's estimated that the Continent will host at least nine "megacities" of more than 10 million people and around 25 cities in excess of 5 million.

The population of Africa is projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, at which point it will comprise 26% of the world's working age population, with an economy that is estimated to grow twice as fast as that of the developed world. With the operational phase having started, businesses (including trading and manufacturing enterprises and services companies) across Africa will be able to make use of preferential trading arrangements offered by the AfCFTA, with the understanding that the trade transactions are among the Member States that have ratified the Agreement and those that...