Kenya, Rwanda, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Mauritius, and Tanzania have been selected to commence trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area framework in a pilot phase.
Operating under the AfCFTA Initiative on Guided Trade was announced during the 9th meeting of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers in Accra on Monday, July 25.
“The initiative seeks to demonstrate that AfCFTA is functioning and send a political message to countries that are yet to submit their provisional schedules of tariff concessions in accordance with agreed modalities,” said AfCFTA council of ministers.
The move seeks to test the environmental, legal and trade policy basis for intra-African trade.
The AfCFTA Guided Trade Initiative is one of the key announcements made today at the 9th Meeting of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers. Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Tanzania, Rwanda and Egypt are the countries participating in this exercise. #IntraAfricaTrade pic.twitter.com/hgGefHSS18
— AfCFTA Secretariat Official (@AfCFTA) July 25, 2022
The AfCFTA envisages bringing together all 55 AU member states, covering a market of more than 1.2 billion people, including a growing middle class, and a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of more than 3.4 trillion U.S. dollars. 43 Countries have already ratified the agreement.
