The case for the African Continental Free Trade Area: the AfCFTA, Africa’s trade flows and industrialization

The prevailing story of Africa’s exports since 2000 has been that of the strong impact of the commodities super cycle. The bulk of Africa’s impressive almost three-fold increase in exports, from $194 billion in 2000 to $544 billion in 2014, is due mostly to the expansion of extractive exports and the commodity price boom. This has contributed to Africa’s headline growth figures but has not been conducive to the economic transformation Africa requires to industrialize and realize long-run sustainable growth. The growth of intra-African trade has helped to promote Africa’s industrial export sectors since 2000. Despite amounting to just 18 per cent of Africa’s total exports, intra-African exports have accounted for 57 per cent of the growth in Africa’s exports of capital goods, 51 per cent of processed food and beverages, 46 per cent of consumer goods, 45 per cent of transport equipment, and 44 per cent of processed industrial supplies . The exceptional value of this intra-African trade for Africa’s industrialized economic transformation provides the foundational logic behind the AfCFTA. The fundamental rationale of the AfCFTA is to promote this trade through the removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers.

Bibliographic Details

Format:	Policy paper biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	2018
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