Technical Barriers to Trade

This book is a timely addition to emerging studies on the world’s largest Free Trade Area represented by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). Its introduction to the subject of economic integration in Africa under the AfCFTA marks a very crucial intervention as African countries begin to implement the phases of the AfCFTA as envisaged in the agreement. The AfCFTA represents the latest attempt at continent-wide economic integration to bring economic prosperity to the 55 economies that form the African regional market which is inclusive of smaller economies, albeit with great human and economic potential. When fully implemented, the AfCFTA is expected to propel Africa’s current income by as much as 7% by generating an additional income of USD 450 billion.

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: Legal and Policy Frameworks provides a comprehensive assessment of the African economic integration through the prism and principles of international economic law. The analysis is contextualized within the prevailing regional economic integrations, the WTO and the peculiarity of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Similarly, legal analysis is bolstered by the political economy of the AfCFTA, illustrating the complex interplay of diverse factors that shape the AfCFTA.

Tension between investment protection and right to regulate has not been resolved yet and it is even more dangerous when States take measures in order to target health, social and economic effects of the covid-19 pandemic. Facing investor-State dispute resolution reform, an approach from Martha Fineman's vulnerability theory is imperative. Placing human being (vulnerable subject) as the center of the analysis, right to regulate protection should be a pre-stage for building resilience from social institutions. Therefore, States would not be at risk of compromising their budgets in international arbitration or experiencing “regulatory chill

The first seeming obstacle to the emergence of a single African market is the contradictions between the stated aims of AfCFTA and some of the principles set out in the AfCFTA Agreement. As noted earlier, AfCFTA’s objectives include creating “a single market” and laying “the foundations for the establishment of a Continental Customs Union”. Yet, one of the principles under Article 5 is “variable geometry”, that is, differentiated integration. Of course, variable geometry was designed to recognise the heterogeneity and diversity in Africa’s economies. However, a single market is not consistent with an a la carte approach, where members integrate at different speeds.