'The agreement establishing the CFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) was signed by 44 countries,' says Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the AU commission

KIGALI, Rwanda – Forty-four African countries have signed an agreement establishing a free trade area seen as vital to the continent's economic development, the head of the African Union said Wednesday, March 21.

"The agreement establishing the CFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) was signed by 44 countries," said Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the AU commission.

The creation of a free trade area – billed as the world's largest – comes after two years of negotiations, and is one of the AU's flagship projects for greater African integration.

However, the agreement will still have to be ratified at a national level, and is only due to come into force in 180 days.

The full list of countries which did not sign the agreement is not yet available, however Nigeria is a notable absentee after President Muhammadu Buhari pulled out of this week's launch in Rwanda saying he needed more time for consultations at home.

Nigeria, one of Africa's largest markets, hesitated after objections from business leaders and unions -- a sign that getting the deal through scores of national parliaments may face several hurdles.

"Some countries have reservations and have not finalised their national consultations. But we shall have another summit in Mauritania in July where we expect countries with reservations to also sign," said Albert Muchanga, the AU Commissioner for Trade and Industry. – Rappler.com </s> JOHANNESBURG - Heads of state in the African Union will on Wednesday sign the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement.

Presidents, prime ministers, high-level officials and private-sector stakeholders are all in Rwanda’s capital of Kigali for the AU's 10th extraordinary summit of the heads of state and government.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is there with International Relations Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies.

Ramaphosa says that the proposed single currency matching one on one with the dollar will make trade easier on the continent.

"For really good trade to take place on the continent, you need to know that you can trade effectively and trade profitably and utilise a currency that you can use right across the continent. And maybe setting up thhis free trade area, we need to have an African currency." </s> Leaders from 44 African countries on Wednesday signed an agreement to form a $2.5 trillion continental free-trade zone, but Nigeria was absent.

The free-trade zone is the largest in the world since the creation of the World Trade Organisation in 1995.

Deliberations on the free-trade zone begun in 2015 and was originally projected to capture 55 countries.

At the African Union summit in Kigali, Rwanda, Paul Kagame, host president, declared the meeting a success after initial negotiations were concluded.

President Muhammadu Buhari had been initially scheduled to attend the summit and sign the agreement after the federal executive council gave its approval at its March 14 meeting.

The trip was cancelled on Sunday, March 18 and the presidency did not give a reason for the development. </s> President Cyril Ramaphosa is joining other African leaders for the inauguration of what is billed as the world’s largest free-trade zone, due to take place on Wednesday, when heads of state in the African Union (AU) sign the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.

Presidents, prime ministers, high-level officials and private-sector stakeholders are all in Rwanda’s capital for the AU’s 10th extraordinary summit of the heads of state and government. The meeting includes a business summit of panel discussions to be held on Tuesday under the theme, "Leveraging the power of business to drive Africa’s integration".

The AfCFTA looks to facilitate the free movement of goods and services as a precursor to the establishment of the African Customs Union. It features a host of measures and institutional frameworks to foster intra-Africa trade through the elimination of tariffs, the harmonisation of customs protocols, and the development of regional supply chains.

"AfCFTA will make Africa one of the largest economies in the world and enhance its capacity to interact on equal terms with other international economic blocs," commented AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat.

The AU’s executive council met over the weekend to finalise the legal and institutional frameworks for the free-trade zone, including a dispute settlement mechanism and protocols pertaining to the liberalisation of 90% of goods in the customs union.

About 46 countries are expected to sign on, comprising 29 presidents and 17 vice-presidents as signatories. Ramaphosa is expected to be in Kigali, along with International Relations and Co-operation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, the Department of Trade and Industry’s Rob Davies, and his deputy Gratitude Magwanishe.

After Wednesday’s signing, phase two of the negotiations will kick off towards the end of 2018 and will entail thrashing out the details of investment requirements, rules of services trading, competition, and intellectual property rights.

The AfCFTA will be the second flagship project signed this year after the Single Air Transport Market, and forms part of the body’s larger continental economic integration plan enshrined in the AU’s developmental Agenda 2063.

The free-trade zone will span all the AU’s 54 member states, comprising 1.2-billion people and a combined GDP of $3.4-trillion. Intra-Africa trade accounts for a mere 16% of the continent’s total trade, compared to more than 70% of intra-regional trade seen in Europe.

The UN’s Economic Commission for Africa reckons that eliminating import duties alone could see AfCFTA boosting intra-continental trade by 52.3%.

Implementation of AfCFTA will go hand in hand with the union’s action plan on Boosting Intra-Africa Trade (BIAT), which aims to double trade flows by 2022. </s> In an elaborate ceremony in the beehive-shaped Kigali Convention Centre, 44 African Union member states signed an agreement on an African free trade area. President Cyril Ramaphosa is confident Africa will unite, even though the continent’s two biggest economies, South Africa and Nigeria, still had to come on board. By CARIEN DU PLESSIS.

Much was made of Africa’s “historic moment” – second only, it was said, to the founding of the Organisation of African Unity 55 years ago.

Master of ceremonies, former BBC journalist Mark Eddo, kept up the enthusiastic refrain:

“Change is in the air, I can feel it!”

Such was the hype that real information was at times difficult to find. For instance, there was no clear announcement on which agreement a country was signing if they weren’t signing all three – the Protocol on the Free Movement of People (across Africa), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, or the opt-out-for-now-but-still-committed-to-it Kigali Declaration. An accurate list of which country signed what was also still elusive.

South Africa, as it turned out, signed only the Kigali Declaration, with 42 other African Union states, although at some point some communicators from the Rwandan side, as well as a list of signatories, said South Africa did sign all three.

Forty-four states signed the actual agreement, aimed at improving trade between African countries, while 27 signed the Protocol on the Free Movement of People.

Both of these were flagship projects of the AU’s long-term plan, Agenda 2063, introduced at the AU under the leadership of Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

Rwanda, which hosted the extraordinary summit, went to great lengths to make it happen in the year when its president Paul Kagame is chairing the African Union. The Rwandan government paid for presidential suites in Kigali hotels for the heads of state attending, and along with each, seven rooms for work and for people in the presidential entourage, and five official cars. And the city’s main routes were all closed for the occasion. (This meant Rwandans were late for work, and ordinary people who had to get to the summit were subjected to interesting excursions on the untarred back roads in the parts of Kigali yet to be developed.)

A group of journalists, including this Daily Maverick reporter, was hosted by the Rwandan government in the three-star The Mirror Hotel, not far from the conference venue.

It’s a big investment, and Rwanda wanted to make it work. Kagame, after all, has a reputation to uphold as a no-nonsense business-minded president.

There were some hauntingly beautiful moments, like when the choir of Rwanda’s first music school, the Nyundi School of Art, sang Asimbonanga as the Sahrawi Republic head of state stepped up to sign, but there were also schedules that weren’t quite adhered to, partly due to the length of the presidential caucus first thing in the morning, and then to the length of the signing ceremony (it started with a commitment by 30-something countries, but in the course of the day grew to 40-something). By the time of the closing at 16:30, some presidents, like Cyril Ramaphosa, had already had to leave to wrap up and catch their flights.

Ramaphosa did, however, grant a 30 minute-interview for the handful of South African journalists (and not just to the SABC, as his predecessor did in especially his second term).

In a hotel room next to his suite at Kigali’s Marriott Hotel, Ramaphosa explained that South Africa supported the free trade area ideals.

“All that holds us back from signing the actual agreement is our own consultation processes,” he said.

“We still need … to consult in Cabinet, to consult our various partners at Nedlac (the forum for government, labour and business), but also to finally consult with our parliamentarians, so we are really just going through what you would call the ‘clean-up process’. Everybody’s on board at home, so as far as we are concerned, we are part of this.”

Nigeria, whose president Muhammadu Buhari had to turn back on his way to the airport because of objections from business groups, didn’t sign the agreement either. Nigeria, too, needed to go through an internal consultation process, said Ramaphosa. The agreement wasn’t dead in the water at all.

In fact, Ramaphosa even has a vision for a single African currency as an ultimate outcome of a free trade area, something he floated at a business forum as part of the summit on Tuesday.

Some businesspeople even suggested something similar to Bitcoin at that forum.

“Africa is developing in a wonderful way, further on this economic journey, and we will be beginning to interface with the notion and the idea of a single currency,” Ramaphosa said.

“Some even suggested a digital currency, and it is possible that a digital currency will even precede a real single currency because it is easier done.”

Even though South Africa still has a lot of hurdles to overcome in terms of open borders, Ramaphosa wanted this changed too. Our African sisters and brothers are forever complaining about the strict rules and the intransigent visa bureaucracy.

Ramaphosa met with Kagame on arrival in Kigali on Tuesday, and they talked about making it easier for Rwandan citizens to get visas. The South African visa office in Kigali was closed in 2014 after a spat between the countries over the murder of an opposition leader in South Africa.

Ramaphosa, surprisingly, revealed in Wednesday’s interview that the visa issue was bigger than just Rwanda.

“There is a deep yearning in Rwanda and the region for this visa matter to be resolved, and we need to open up the borders of our country and allow people to move,” he said.

Under the free trade accord, it should be easier for businesspeople to move around on the continent, he said.

Other countries, like Rwanda, could come to do business in South Africa and vice versa, “because when they come, they come with money”, he said.

“They bring dollars to come and invest in South Africa.”

Movement of people across borders “does not only mean people are coming to South Africa to take our people’s jobs”, he said.

“It also needs to be seen in another dimension, that we are sending companies here (to Rwanda) to do business, to trade and to learn new skills. And as it is now, Rwanda has a lot to teach us. They have developed so quickly and got out of the total disaster they had 20 years ago and they are a completely transformed country,” he said, with reference to Rwanda’s genocide in 1994.

He said the movement of people should be looked at “in a positive sense that people, as they move, (have) got something to contribute. And similarly, when we move as South Africans, we move to other countries, we know that we have something to contribute, so let’s treat them like we want to be treated.”

Some analysts say it could take another 10 years after the signing of the agreement – phase one out of six phases – for continental free trade to become a reality.

After the signing, 22 countries had to ratify the agreement – meaning they had to go through domestic parliamentary processes – for it to come into force.

At least it seems South Africa, headed by New Broom Ramaphosa, is at least on track to phase one. DM

Photo: President Cyril Ramaphosa signs the Kigali Declaration on the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area at the 10th Extraordinary Summit of the Assembly of the African Union in Kigali, Rwanda, 21 March 2018. (GCIS) </s> Image copyright Getty Images Image caption It is hoped the deal will boost low levels of manufacturing in Africa

The leaders of 44 African countries have signed a deal to create one of the world's largest free trade blocs.

The agreement was signed at a summit in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

It is hoped the deal will come into force within six months, and increase prosperity for 1.2 billion Africans.

But 10 countries, including Nigeria, have refused to sign the deal, and it will need to be ratified by all the signatories' national parliaments before the bloc becomes a reality.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) would remove barriers to trade, like tariffs and import quotas, allowing the free flow of goods and services between its members.

In theory that should boost commerce, growth and employment.

African Union commission head Moussa Faki Mahamat called it a "glorious challenge... which calls for the courage to believe, the courage to dare... the courage to achieve".

He then recognised that to succeed the countries will "need to summon the required political will".

An EU for Africa?

Trade between African countries is relatively low. It accounts for only 10% of all commerce on the continent - compared with 25% in south-east Asia - according to news agency Reuters.

Once the free trade area is established, the ambition is to take further steps that echo the creation of the European Union - like a customs union, a common market, and even a single currency, says Matthew Davies, editor of the BBC's Africa Business Report.

He says many obstacles still have to be overcome.

One is the relatively low level of manufacturing that takes place on a continent where trade often means selling raw materials to the outside world.

Another is getting Africa's largest economy, Nigeria, on board. President Muhammadu Buhari pulled out of the summit, after "certain key stakeholders" - thought to mean trade unions and businesses - complained they had not been consulted.

The African Union said it hoped those countries with reservations would be persuaded to sign at a later date. </s> Forty-four African countries have signed up to a historic trade agreement aimed at paving the way for a liberalized market for goods and services across the continent.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), an agreement cast in the mold of the European Union’s version was signed during the 10th Ordinary Session of African Union Heads of State summit held in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

The AfCFTA gives birth to the world’s largest free trade area since the World Trade Organization which was formed in 1995. A total of nineteen presidents were present whiles a number of Prime Ministers and government representatives also signed for their respective countries.

In remarks on Tuesday during deliberations, host and current African Union (A.U.) president, Paul Kagame said: “This agreement is about trade in goods and services. These are the kinds of complex products that drive high income economies.”

Under the theme: “Creating One African Market,” the initiative falls under the Agenda 2063 of the A.U. According to estimates, if all 55 members states of the AU ratify it, the agreement will bring together 1.2 billion people with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of more than 2 trillion US Dollars.

The failure to attend by Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari who leads Africa’s largest economy and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni had analysts worried. Ugandan Foreign Affairs minister attended and signed. Nigeria did not sign.

Analysts say Buhari may have caved under pressure from local labour unions and big corporations who have opposed the treaty saying it would harm the local economy

“If Nigeria does not join, it will have an impact definitely. Nigeria is 190 million population country, it’s a large economy. So we hope that Nigeria will not pull out of it.

“Nigeria had already been part of the process of building it, we think it’s just maybe one step back that they are taking to review,” Alpha Sy, an analyst said. </s> The African Continental Free Trade Area launched in Niger Sunday at the opening of the African Union Summit.The agreement, signed by 54 of 55 African nations, will form the largest free trade area in the world. There is much hope that pan-African trade will grow but structural issues are a challenge </s> (AP) — Several African heads of state have gathered in Niger’s capital to launch a continentwide free trade area.

The African Continental Free Trade Area aims to create a single unified market for the continent’s 1.3 billion people and to boost economic development in an estimated market of $3.4 trillion.

Plans for the free trade zone received a boost last week when Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria, became the 25th country to ratify the trade agreement.

The general agreement has been signed by 54 of Africa’s 55 countries, with only Eritrea not signing up.

The location of the zone’s headquarters and a timeline for the start of trading are expected to be announced at the African Union summit in Niamey on Sunday.
The leaders of 44 African Union states sign an agreement in Kigali, Rwanda, to create the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA).