AfCFTA rules of origin close to completion

Members of Africa’s new free trade area should complete their tariff reduction schedules and finalise essential rules of origin by July, a senior official with the bloc's secretariat has noted. African states began officially trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on 1 January, after months of delays due to the global coronavirus pandemic. However, analysts say full implementation of the deal is likely to take years. Business Day reports that Silver Ojakol, chief of staff at the AfCFTA secretariat, said nearly 90% of the rules of origin had been agreed on. ‘So the remaining 10% must be completed by July. By the end of June, we should have completed both the tariff scheduling and the rules of origin,’ he said. The AfCFTA aims to bring together 1.3bn people in a $3.4trn economic bloc that will be the largest free trade area since the establishment of the WTO.