Can AfCFTA traverse itself through the turbulent of COVID-19?

 


The global COVID-19 pandemic is plunging the world into a socioeconomic and financial crisis of an unprecedented scale, in addition to the acute health crisis. The crisis has exposed and exacerbated vulnerabilities and inequalities in both developing and developed countries, deepening poverty and exclusion and pushing the most vulnerable even further behind. The shattering effects have been more visible to the African continent which has consolidated its energies in the creation of an African Economic Community (AEC) prior to the eruption of the pandemic in December 2019 in China.

 Africa doesn’t have the luxury of time and cannot follow the traditional path to economic integration. Africa has to abandon the EU linear model of integration and create our own model which is acquainted with the peculiar African challenges. It worth to mention that the integration of Europe happened at the time the world financial systems had the capacity to fund the initiatives and reconstruction programs after the devastating  world war 2 (WWII).   

A sustainable, equitable and peaceful future of Africa hinges on the right national and continental policy decisions which appreciates that the real deal of AfCFTA is outside the corridors of African Union headquarters in, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia or the AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra Ghana. More efforts should be on the education of the African people who are in the informal sector and the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on what is AfCFTA and how they can benefit. More resources should be channelled in the dissemination of AfCFTA which has been overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The issue of sovereignty and ceding trade decision-making powers to a centralised body will be challenging in the times of this pandemic. This poses a challenge on the powers the AfCFTA Secretariat can impose on the individual member states on its quest to fully implement the continental project.  

  Democracy and rule of law which are regarded as sound doctrine for these neo-liberal policies has been under attack since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the name of saving lives and protecting the public. With disaster emergence laws being invoked as the pandemic moves from being a public health issue to a national disaster. Laws that are used in times of war and severe disturbances have been used against the people in ways to combat and win against COVID -19. In the same epoch is the time Africa has to make the long overdue dream of an integrated continent a reality. With COVID-19 still ravaging the African economies, it is critical to understand how the pandemic may make or break the so much anticipated continental free trade area. Most countries in Africa responded by closing borders and restricting people movements across the countries. The question which pops up is, has COVID-19 resuscitated the nationalism ideology which seemed threatened by multilateralism and regionalism?   Or is it time we notice the strengthening of global and regional institutions as individual countries fail to win against the pandemic? Only time will tell.

The agreement committed participating countries in general to remove tariffs on 90% of ‘non sensitive’ goods, to progressively liberalize trade in services, and address multiple other non-tariff barrier to trade. This would make Africa the largest free trade area in the world. Moreover, its scope exceeds that of a traditional free trade area because it is complemented by other continental initiatives, including the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Right to Residence and Right to Establishment, and the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) and the Protocol on Rules and Procedures on the Settlement of Disputes which all fell under phase one of the negotiations. The challenge is on the readiness of the political leaders to relinquish enough political power to the newly formed supranational organisation for the realisation of these initiatives.  There has been paper commitment in the past from these African leaders and it has to be business unusual with AfCFTA if intended results are to differ with the experiences of existing regional economic communities (RECs).

It is all about the initiatives which will be adopted by the AfCFTA to disseminate the information about the continental project to the intended beneficiaries who are manufacturing and selling goods inside and across the borders. As much as we need to continue spreading the information on COVID-19 we also need to ensure that AfCFTA is not relegated to the periphery of current policy formulations at both national and regional level. It is in the hands of the AfCFTA secretariat to devise mechanisms to navigate these turbulent waves thrown in by COVID-19.

 

Levious Chiukira

lchiukira@gmail.com
+263773065062

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