The AfCFTA represents a timely strategic response to growing global trade protectionism. In a recent interview, Secretary General Wamkele Mene highlighted how the agreement – now ratified by 48 African nations – aims to transform the continent’s economic landscape by reducing intra-African trade barriers and creating a unified market of 1.4 billion people.
Mene identified “increased trade protectionism” and “economic nationalism” as one of three global developments compelling faster AfCFTA implementation, alongside pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and food security challenges stemming from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Through prioritizing key sectors like agriculture, automotive manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and logistics, the AfCFTA seeks to decrease Africa’s vulnerability to external trade shocks like the new U.S. tariffs by fostering continental self-sufficiency, enhancing value-added production capabilities, and creating an “investment-led intra-Africa trade” model that can withstand increasing global trade barriers.