Home
FacebookSearchMenu
  • Subscribe
  • Subscribe
  • News
  • Features
  • Knowledge Library
  • Columns
  • Customs
  • Jobs
  • Directory
  • FX Rates
  • Categories
    • Categories
    • Africa
    • Air Freight
    • BEE
    • Border Beat
    • COVID-19
    • Crime
    • Customs
    • Domestic
    • Duty Calls
    • Economy
    • Employment
    • Energy/Fuel
    • Events
    • Freight & Trading Weekly
    • Imports and Exports
    • Infrastructure
    • International
    • Logistics
    • Other
    • People
    • Road/Rail Freight
    • Sea Freight
    • Skills & Training
    • Social Development
    • Sustainability
    • Technology
    • Trade/Investment
    • Webinars
  • Contact us
    • Contact us
    • About Us
    • Advertise
    • Send us news
    • Editorial Guidelines
Africa
COVID-19
Economy

AfCFTA could cure Africa’s Covid-19 economic contagion

08 Oct 2021 - by Ed Richardson
0 Comments

Share

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • E-mail
  • Print

Regional integration through structures like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) are needed to help poorer countries to recover economically from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to delegates attending Unctad’s 15th quadrennial conference in Barbados.

“The current international trading system has so far failed to provide many developing economies with the opportunity to build back better,” Unctad Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan said as she opened the discussion.

“In this light,” she added, “it is critically important to conceive regional integration and cooperation arrangements as part and parcel of an enabling environment for a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future.”

In March, the AfCFTA Secretariat and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed a strategic partnership to promote trade as a stimulus for Africa’s socioeconomic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

The partnership will leverage UNDP’s presence in all African countries, working in close collaboration with other UN entities, and includes direct support to the AfCFTA Secretariat through a financial grant of US$3 million, according to a joint statement.

Regional integration has long been a tool to reduce border protection but can also effectively address behind-the-border non-tariff measures, whose trade costs are now two to three times higher than that of tariffs, according to Unctad.

By harmonising policies and regulations through protocols on, for example, intellectual property rights and competition policy, regional trade agreements (RTAs) could create opportunities for local businesses, panellists said.

“Regionalism is necessary for a freer flow of trade and competition that will push down prices and increase production,” said Eleanor M Fox, a professor of trade regulation at New York University.

Having access to a bigger market would help develop an African pharmaceutical industry capable of meeting the needs of the continent’s population, said Albert Muchanga, the African Union’s commissioner for economic development, trade, industry and mining.

African companies currently manufacture less than 2% of the medicines consumed on the continent. As a result, he said, roughly half of Africans lacked regular access to the most essential medicines.

By creating a common market of over 1.3 billion people, AfCFTA was expected to give a major boost to Africa’s pharmaceutical industry by resolving the challenges of small and fragmented markets, he added.

An unfragmented AfCFTA market would be as big as India’s domestic market, which Muchanga said was key to the country’s ability to build a pharmaceutical sector that has become the world’s largest provider of generic drugs and a key supplier of the multilateral Covax initiative to provide equal access to Covid-19 vaccines. 

Sign up to our mailing list and get daily news headlines and weekly features directly to your inbox free.
Subscribe to receive print copies of Freight News Features to your door.

Deployment of new RTGs at PoCT speeded up

Logistics

A general cargo vessel carrying a second batch of new RTGs is expected imminently.

Yesterday
0 Comments

ULCV successfully docks at Ngqura, makes history

Logistics
Sea Freight

“This achievement solidifies our status as a significant player in the maritime industry.” – TNPA

Yesterday
0 Comments

Trump tariffs – July 9 deadline draws nearer

Imports and Exports
Trade/Investment

One of the countries that has already learned its fate in the face of punishing duties is Vietnam.

Yesterday
0 Comments

Fuel price hikes a strain for consumers

Energy/Fuel

Double-digit price increases and a higher fuel levy will place financial pressure on households.

Yesterday
0 Comments

Pork for citrus? South Africa faces tough US trade choice

Imports and Exports

If SA’s disease-free status is compromised, PRRS could come at a heavy cost to local pork producers.

Yesterday
0 Comments

Carrier launches direct flights to London Gatwick

Air Freight

The new route enhances the Kenya-UK Economic Partnership Agreement.

Yesterday
0 Comments

Creecy reiterates rail cargo volume targets

Logistics
Road/Rail Freight

The intention to re-establish rail as the backbone of transport is fundamental to reforms in SA.

Yesterday
0 Comments

Resilience required for air sector disruption – executive

Air Freight

Air traffic in the region is expected to rise by an average of 6.4% annually.

02 Jul 2025
0 Comments

Insight of the week: legally ditching higher duties

The actual practice can be traced back to 1882, when an importer in the United States had sugar coated with molasses.

02 Jul 2025
0 Comments

How to avoid the fear of being evaluated

Freight & Trading Weekly
Logistics
Skills & Training

Lifelong learning has become the norm across all economic sectors, both in the UK and globally.

02 Jul 2025
0 Comments

Skills needed to unfreeze African growth potential

Logistics

Growth in demand for cold chain efficiencies is being driven by economic development and rising income.

02 Jul 2025
0 Comments

Iran seeks full control of Russian Caspian Sea terminal

Logistics

The port handles a broad range of goods, including grain, timber, metal products and fertilisers.

02 Jul 2025
0 Comments
  • More

FeatureClick to view

Cold Chain Logistics 4 July 2025

Border Beat

Forum tightens net against border corruption
25 Jun 2025
Police clamp down on cross-border crime
17 Jun 2025
Zim's anti-smuggling measures delay legitimate freight operations
06 Jun 2025
More

Poll

Has South Africa's ports turned the corner?

Featured Jobs

New

Road Logistics Pricing Specialist

Tiger Recruitment
East Rand
02 Jul
New

Operations Manager

Lee Botti & Associates
Cape Town
02 Jul
More Jobs
  • © Now Media
  • Privacy Policy
  • Freight News RSS
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Send us news
  • Contact us