The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has halted the implementation of the African Free Trade Agreement, forcing officials to postpone it.
“It is obviously not possible to commence trade as we had intended on 1 July under the current circumstances,” Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), told Reuters.
Although Mene did not say whether there was a new targeted implementation, he was confident the deal would still proceed.
“The political commitment remains, the political will remains to integrate Africa’s market and to implement the agreement as was intended,” he said.
Mene said intra-Africa trade could serve the purpose of stimulating the economies of the countries in the continent since many governments are not capable of launching the same economic stimulus packages as the United States and Europe.
The AfCFTA became operational in May 2019, after ratification by some African countries but trading under the agreement was scheduled to begin in July 2020. It aims to create a continental market with the free movement of persons, capital, goods, and services and boost the combined consumer and business spending and increase intra-African trade by at least 53.2 percent, according to Brookings.
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