African Continental Free Trade Area

The African Continental Free Trade Area is an agreement among African Union member states to reduce trade barriers and establish a single continental market for goods and services.

AfCFTA Agreement: The treaty establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area and its institutions, protocols, and implementation framework. This treaty supplies the legal basis for reducing trade barriers across participating countries.
Lagos Plan of Action: A 1980 Organization of African Unity strategy promoting African economic self-reliance and regional cooperation. It articulated an early continent-wide vision of integration that later initiatives pursued.
Intra-African trade: Trade in goods and services between African countries. Increasing this trade is a central aim of AfCFTA market integration.
African regional economic communities: Regional organizations recognized by the African Union that promote economic integration among groups of African countries. They are building blocks of continental integration and retain overlapping trade arrangements.
Rules of origin: Criteria that determine the national or regional origin of a product for trade policy purposes. They determine which goods qualify for AfCFTA tariff preferences.
Abuja Treaty: The 1991 treaty establishing the African Economic Community through a gradual process of regional integration. Its staged integration framework anticipated a continent-wide African market.
African Union Trade in Goods Initiative: An African Union initiative supporting preferential trade in selected goods among AfCFTA participating countries. It supports early commercial use of AfCFTA preferences while full schedules are implemented.
Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa: A regional organization that promotes economic integration among eastern and southern African states. COMESA covers a subregion, while AfCFTA seeks a market spanning the continent.
Tariff liberalization: The reduction or removal of customs duties on imported goods. AfCFTA schedules phase down duties on qualifying goods traded between members.
African Union: A continental organization of African states established in 2002 to promote unity, cooperation, and development. The Union adopted the political agenda that produced the AfCFTA negotiations.

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