Liberalizing Regional Trade Regimes Through AfCFTA: Challenges and Opportunities

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-318
Author(s):  
Chidebe Matthew Nwankwo ◽  
Collins Chikodili Ajibo
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Multilateral Trading System ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Trade Regimes

AbstractThe ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) marked a landmark event in the quest to achieve intra-African free trade. AfCFTA is poised to represent the largest free trade area outside the World Trade Organization. Although AfCFTA aspires to liberalize intra-African trade in goods and services to foster socio-economic development, there are concerns that capacity constraints may stultify the underlying goals. AfCFTA is expected to build on the considerable successes already achieved by Africa's regional economic communities. However, it fails to clarify how the overlapping regimes will be reconciled and harmonized. Nevertheless, the agreement is laudable for its quest to facilitate intra-African trade, foster regional value chains that can facilitate integration into the global economy, and energize industrialization, competitiveness and innovation. This article examines the celebrated AfCFTA to understand its potential amid local realities and the possible implications for the multilateral trading system.

African Continental Free-Trade Area: Key Challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 57-76
Author(s):  
Ifeanyi Ezeonu
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
First Century ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Free Movement Of Persons

Abstract On March 21, 2018, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement was signed in Kigali, Rwanda by an overwhelming majority of African states. This Agreement, which was designed to create a free-trade area across the African continent, came into force on May 30, 2019, following its ratification by twenty-two African states as provided for in the agreement. The resultant free-trade area is intended to integrate African markets, stimulate industrialization, and engender the economic transformation of the continent through the promotion of free movement of persons, capital, goods, and services across the continent. This article discusses the key challenges facing the new free-trade zone and the prospects of the trade zone for African industrialization and economic development in the twenty-first century.

scholarly journals The Southern African Development Community Trade Legal Instruments Compliance with Certain Criteria of GATT Article XXIV

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 286
Author(s):  
A Saurombe
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
Customs Unions ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Multilateral Trading System

Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) lays down the legal principles with which regional trade agreements have to conform.  Based on these principles, WTO members have the mandate to determine the legality of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) under the GATT.  Article XXIV permits both regional and bilateral preferential trade agreements leading to the formation of customs unions and free trade areas, and seeks to integrate them in the multilateral trading system envisioned for the world.  SADC is an RTA created under this Article. Notwithstanding the controversies surrounding the provisions and interpretation of Article XXIV, this paper seeks to establish the extent to which the SADC Protocol on Trade and free trade area comply with WTO rules. An analysis of selected Article XXIV provisions and the SADC Trade Protocol provisions will be undertaken in trying to establish this compliance.

Recent Developments in the Regulation of Investor-State Dispute Resolution: Any Lessons for the Southern African Development Community?

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 180-204
Author(s):  
Lawrence Ngobeni ◽  
Babatunde Fagbayibo
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Southern African Development Community ◽  
African Union ◽  
Foreign Investments ◽  
African Development ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Recent Developments

Abstract In 2016, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) amended Annex 1 of the SADC Protocol on Finance and Investment (FIP) in order to remove investor access to international arbitration or Investor-State Dispute Resolution (ISDS). The recent formation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (T-FTA) are factors that will likely curtail SADC’s ability to regulate foreign investments. Both AfCFTA and T-FTA are supposed to have their own investment protocols. This means that SADC faces the loss of regulatory authority over foreign investments. The recent formation of the Pan African Investment Code (PAIC) has shown that some African Union (AU) Member States want to provide ISDS for their investors, while others including SADC Members States do not. This article intends to evaluate the lessons SADC can learn from other jurisdictions in terms of the effective regulation of ISDS.

Multilateralism compromised: the mysterious origins of GATT Article XXIV

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
KERRY CHASE
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Cold War ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Policy Ideas ◽  
The Us

The GATT treaty's loophole for free trade areas in Article XXIV has puzzled and deceived prominent scholars, who trace its postwar origins to US aspirations to promote European integration and efforts to persuade developing countries to endorse the Havana Charter. Drawing from archival records, this article shows that in fact US policymakers crafted the controversial provisions of Article XXIV to accommodate a trade treaty they had secretly reached with Canada. As a result, the free trade area exemption was embedded in the GATT–WTO regime, even though neither the Havana Charter nor the US–Canada free trade agreement was ever ratified. Theoretically, the case is an important example of how Cold War exigencies altered the policy ideas of US officials.

A Legal Analysis of the Free Trade Agreement of 1975 between the European Community and the State of Israel

1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Kapeliuk-Klinger
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Fair Competition ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Equivalent Effect ◽  
State Of Israel

On January 1, 1989, the State of Israel abolished the remaining customs duties and charges, having equivalent effect on imported products originating in the European Communities (hereinafter the Community), in accordance with the Free Trade Agreement (hereinafter the FT Agreement) concluded on May 11, 1975, between the Community and Israel.The FT Agreement, which sets out to create a free trade area in the territories of the contracting parties, was the result of the previously existing relationship between the Community and Israel, as well as the emergence of the Global Mediterranean Policy within the Community. The FT Agreement attempts to foster economic activity by promoting expansion of trade and cooperation in reciprocal areas of interest, thus creating fair competition and contributing to the development and expansion of world trade.

scholarly journals ANALISIS PENERAPAN ASEAN-INDIA FREE TRADE AREA (AIFTA) TERHADAP PERDAGANGAN DUA NEGARA INDONESIA DENGAN INDIA MENGGUNAKAN GRAVITY MODEL

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
Janes Guratan Djermor ◽  
Ivan Yulianto
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Model ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Normal Level ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Transportation Costs ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Using Data

The ASEAN-India Free Trade Area (AIFTA) policy has been effectively run since January 1, 2010. It is time to evaluate its benefits for trade relations between its members, especially between Indonesia and India. Analysis of the effectiveness and benefits of AIFTA policy in this study uses the Gravity Model by calculating the variables of Indonesia's GDP, India's GDP, transportation costs, and AIFTA's policies enggaged in trade relations between Indonesia and India using data from first quarter of 2004 until first quarter of 2018. This research shows that implementation of AIFTA does not have any effect on trade between two countries since trade between them had already reaching normal level. This research wishes to give a better insight on policy taking, especially for ongoing and forthcoming trade agreement.

scholarly journals A Solution for Africa

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Collins
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Majority Voting ◽  
Regional Environment ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
The Eu

Regionalism—the efforts of a group of nations to enhance their economic, political, social, and cultural interaction—can assume various forms, including regional integration/cooperation, market integration, development integration, with the intent of accommodating the changing national, international, and regional environment. Despite the fact that to this day, attempts at integration (in particular, market integration based on the EU model) and regionalist impulses as they currently occur have been entirely unproductive throughout the African continent, regionalism continues to be regarded by African leaders as a reasonable strategy for increasing intra-regional trade and for reversing Africa’s rising marginalization in the world economy. They continue to be assured by the success of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the viability of the European Union’s (EU) model for integration, which begins with a free trade area or preferential trade area and ends with complete economic integration. The EU model features a specific mode of decision making (qualified majority voting), conflict resolution mechanism (role of the European Court of Justice), budgetary arrangements (revenue collection and distribution), and citizen involvement (direct elections to the European Parliament) and takes on increasingly state-like functions. While extremely successful in integrating its constituent member state in Europe, as a model it is limited, given the unique circumstances under which it was established and promoted. As noted by Emil Kirchner: Consideration of the EU as a model for other regional integration settings might be limited, given the unique circumstances in which it was established and promoted. Born out of conflict, the EU benefited from special circumstances in its development, e.g. the Cold War, the United States guarantee and nurturing role, and the industrialised nature of the European economies, which are not found elsewhere.

An Asian Perspective on SMEs in International Economic Law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heng Wang
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Regulatory Environment ◽  
Market Liberalization ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Unique Nature

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is likely to have profound implications for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within and beyond the free trade area. The key question will be analysed: what are the challenges and opportunities that the TPP hold for SMEs? It is argued that, first, the key benefits the TPP can be expected to bring for SMEs are enhanced market liberalization and a more predictable regulatory environment. Second, the TPP poses serious challenges for SMEs (eg insufficiency of the opportunities to SMEs, the complexity of rules, difficulties in rule interpretation and implementation, and remaining regulatory differences), but different types of SMEs will face very different problems. Third, the TPP, if properly managed, should bring more opportunities than challenges to SMEs. Finally, opportunities and challenges to SMEs under the TPP may not always be the same as those under bilateral FTAs given the unique nature of this mega FTA.

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