Agreement Establishing The African Continental Free Trade Area

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 1028-1083
Author(s):  
James Thuo Gathii
Keyword(s):  
Gross Domestic Product ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Domestic Product ◽  
African Union ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
The World

On May 30, 2019, the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) entered into force for the twenty-four countries that had deposited their instruments of ratification. When the remaining thirty-one member states of the African Union ratify it, the AfCFTA will cover a market of 1.2 billion people and a gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion. That would make it the world's largest trade agreement since the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Cross-Cumulation Arrangement as FTA Under GATT Article XXIV

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-185
Author(s):  
Jong Bum Kim
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Rules Of Origin ◽  
Free Trade Areas ◽  
Intermediate Products ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
The World

ABSTRACT A cross-cumulation arrangement helps manufacturers meet the demands of the global value chain economy by facilitating the sourcing of intermediate products within the territories of participants in the arrangement. It is a de facto free-trade area formed by a network of bilateral free-trade areas underpinning the arrangement. However, a cross-cumulation clause provided in a bilateral free-trade area that underpins a cross-cumulation arrangement is inconsistent with General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Articles I and III because the intermediate products from the participants in the arrangement are more favorably treated than products from non-participants in the arrangement. The GATT inconsistencies of a cross-cumulation clause cannot be justified by the GATT Article XXIV exception, because a cross-cumulation clause of a bilateral free-trade area derogates from the free-trade area’s aim by facilitating trade in intermediate products between the free-trade area parties and non-parties to the free-trade area that are participants in the arrangement. In contrast, a cumulation clause provided in a free-trade area contributes to the free-trade area’s aim by facilitating trade in intermediate products between the parties to the free-trade area. To bring a cross-cumulation arrangement such as the Regional Convention on Pan-Euro-Med Preferential Rules of Origin into conformity with World Trade Organization law, the arrangement and its underlying free-trade areas should be recognized as a de jure free-trade area under GATT Article XXIV and notified to the World Trade Organization as such. A large cross-cumulation arrangement as a mega-free-trade area is likely to contribute to the world trading system by harmonizing divergent free-trade area rules of origin and providing an efficient mechanism for the formation of a mega-free-trade area.

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.

Advancing Regional Integration in Africa through the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA)

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
F. A. Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
African Union ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World

AbstractThe past decade and a half of the new millennium has ushered in dramatic changes to the architecture of world trade creating both opportunities and challenges for Africa’s development. The paper is critical of the recent paper of the World Bank that resuscitates the approach to trade liberalization and regional integration propagated by the Washington Consensus. The paper argues that African countries should adopt a “development integration” approach to regional integration that seeks to combine trade liberalization, industrial development and infrastructure development. The paper urges the World Bank and Africa’s trading partners from the north and south, such as the EU, the US and China, to work closely with the African Union to advance the negotiations and implementation of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and the African Union Agenda 2063.

scholarly journals Tariff At Risk: Can The Florida Citrus Industry Survive?

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith L. Kolva ◽  
Joseph Heinzman, Jr. ◽  
Yvonne Puente
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Orange Juice ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Foreign Competition ◽  
Citrus Industry ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
The World ◽  
Florida Citrus ◽  
Foreign Competitor

For over 70 years, the Florida citrus industry has been protected from foreign competition by a tariff on orange juice. The orange juice tariff is currently being threatened by negotiations over the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Brazil is the leading foreign competitor to the Florida citrus industry. The tariff prevents Brazil from becoming a large citrus cartel that could take control of the worlds orange juice market. The Florida citrus industry contributes $9.1 billion to Floridas economy and provides jobs for 90,000 Florida citizens. Orange juice production is a key to the strength of Floridas economy. Florida citrus growers argue that the tariff is the most important issue facing the industrys survival. Without the tariff, Florida citrus growers are in danger of going out of business. This could devastate Floridas economy. It is important that Florida citrus growers and FTAA negotiators unite and intensify efforts to protect the citrus tariff and ensure the survival of Floridas citrus industry.

scholarly journals The Development of the Free Trade Area of the Americas: A Guide For Legal Research

2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle S. Viegas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Common Market ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
The World

At the 1994 Summit of the Americas, leaders of democratic nations in the Western Hemisphere committed to establishing a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by January 2005. The Declaration of Principles resulting from that Summit called for building on “existing sub-regional and bilateral arrangements in order to broaden and deepen hemispheric economic integration and to bring the agreements together.” Although ambitious, this endeavor was undertaken during a decade marked by an unprecedented proliferation of trade agreements. In 1991, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay agreed to initiate the formation of a common market now known as the MERCOSUR. Then in 1994, Canada, Mexico and the United States signed the North American Free Trade Agreement which replaced the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement. Later that year, nations around the world formalized the existing General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, creating the World Trade Organization. In 1997, the Andean Community of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela formalized its plans to establish a common market. Members of the Caribbean Community and Common Market also agreed in several protocols to further their economic and social integration. During the 1990's, numerous other trade agreements were negotiated, and their development continues at the same rapid pace today.

scholarly journals The COVID-19 Pandemic and African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): Exploring Potential Impacts and Developmental Implications

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Asiedu
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
The World ◽  
Vulnerable Households

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused nontrivial disruptions to global value chains and affected the lives of many people, particularly the poor across the world. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early part of 2020 in Africa, happened during a time that African countries had just signed one of the world’s largest trade agreements and therefore began introducing continental-level structures to strengthen free trade among member states. This chapter examines the potential effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agenda for free trade in Africa, both in the short and in the long-term. Specifically, the chapter explores the trading environment of firms in Africa and highlights generally the challenges faced when implementing a trade agreement in the middle of a pandemic. It also, on the other hand, highlights how trade agreement in a middle of a pandemic can be a good thing to minimize the effect of the pandemic on poor and vulnerable households in Africa. The chapter ends by highlighting the need for managing the COVID-19 pandemic to grow and sustain intra-African trade.

scholarly journals Trade in Services in the African Continental Free Trade Area: Prospects, Challenges and WTO Compatibility

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-95
Author(s):  
Regis Y Simo
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Single Market ◽  
Trade In Services ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
The World

ABSTRACT This article engages with the recently adopted agreement for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in the area of services. While services trade had heretofore stood at the queue of African trade pacts, the AfCFTA breaks new grounds by negotiating goods and services concurrently, signalling a paradigm shift and a commitment to a deeper integration of the continent. Upon Members’ implementation of the Protocol on Trade in Services, whose aim is to establish a single market in services, the region will be the largest economic integration agreement ever concluded since the birth of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This paper sets out to analyse the provisions of the Protocol and how they contribute to achieving the objective of attaining a single market where services (alongside goods, people and capital) move unrestricted.

scholarly journals El Consorcio Cooperativo de Comercialización, Costa Rica: frijol.

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Floribeth Mora ◽  
Ana Abdelnour ◽  
Franklin Herrera ◽  
Joaquín Salazar
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Central American ◽  
International Level ◽  
Cultural Characteristics ◽  
The World

The admission of Costa Rica into the World Trade Organization, and the subscription of the Bilateral Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and the agreements with other Central American countries brought about important changes in bean commercialization in Costa Rica. This partly resulted in the creation of CCCRL as an alternative for bean commercialization. Operation and viability of this Consortium are analyzed under the new conditions for the commercialization of agricultural and arming products, both at a national and international level. Agroecological crop conditions are also examined, as well as the socio-economic and cultural characteristics of the population involved in bean production, and their possible influence on CCCRL viability.

scholarly journals PENGARUH ASEAN-CHINA FREE TRADE AREA TERHADAP KOMODITI TEKSTIL INDONEISA PERIODE 2008-2015

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
Raudah Aghnia Ahda ◽  
Made Siti Sundari ◽  
Idfi Setyaningrum
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
T Test ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World

This study aims to determine whether there is different value between exportand import performance before ACFTA and after ACFTA by developing hypothesis from the previous studies. To test the proposed hypothesis, this Study employed the independent samples t-test with data from the World Bank database. The case study was carried out with concern on textile business between Indonesia and China. The results indicate that the exports value has different mean following the free trade agreement. Similar result occurs at the import value of textile from China toIndonesia.

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