With containment measures and border closures, the entry into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFTAA) is postponed until 1 January 2021.
This free trade area, which represents a potential market of 1.2 billion people, must make it possible to develop intra-African trade considerably (cf.Africa: The Continental Free Trade Area (FTACA) is on track).
However, for the time being, the majority of signatory states must focus on combating the VOCID-19 pandemic: originally scheduled for 2019, entry into force is now shifted to early 2021.
Moreover, although the Member States have already agreed on thephase-out dCustoms duties, they still have to list the goods that will be covered by the exemption.
The other challenge will be to obtain ratification of all the signatory countries: they are only 28 out of 54 to have reached this last stage...
Some heavy goods vehicles such as Nigeria or the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are still resisting and slowing down the progress of the multilateral process.