The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is flagship project of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, a blueprint for attaining inclusive and sustainable development across the continent over the next 50 years.
It aims to boost intra-African trade by providing a comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement among the State Parties covering trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property rights, competition policy, digital trade, and women and youth in trade.
The main objective of the AfCFTA is to create a single market for goods and services, facilitated by movement of persons, in order to deepen the economic integration of the African continent. More specifically, the State Parties shall progressively eliminate tariffs and non-tariff barriers, progressively liberalise trade in services, cooperate on investment, intellectual property rights and competition policy, cooperate on all trade-related areas, cooperate on customs matters and the implementation of trade facilitation measures, establish a mechanism for the settlement of disputes concerning their rights and obligations, and establish and maintain an institutional framework for the implementation and administration of the AfCFTA.
