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LAW
TRADE
ARBITRATION
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About |
In March 2018, members states of the African Union (AU) signed the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) to implement a single continental market for goods and services and establish a continental customs union. With 54 signatories and a population of over 1.3 billion people, this agreement has been described as the largest trade agreement in terms of member States and population since the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). While the share of Africa's intra-continental trade flows in the global trade has remained low, standing at a mere 2% in the global trade on average in the 2015-2017 period (against 47% for the Americas, 61% for Asia, 67%, the for Europe and 7% Oceania), intra-African trade and investment has great growth potential. The gap between Africa's external and internal trade has been gradually bridged over the last three decades with the share of intra-continental imports in Africa's total imports increasing from 5% in 1990 to 12% in 2017 (IMF 2019). According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF 2019), under the AfCFTA: "[t]he elimination of tariffs on intraregional trade is estimated to [further] increase trade in the region by about 15-25 percent over the medium term, whereas reducing nontariff barriers by half would more than double such effects." |
Call for Papers |
We welcome submissions which address these and other relevant topics:
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Credits and Sources |
[1] TDM AfCFTA 2021 : TDM Call for Papers Special Issue on: The African Continental Free Trade Agreement |