There will be significant disruption to existing clearing and forwarding operations throughout Africa as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is rolled out.Clearing agents who specialise in navigating the red tape quagmire that chokes intra-African trade will have to find new ways of differentiating themselves if the majority of goods f lows freely throughout the continent.Forwarders and their road haulier suppliers will not be constrained by the three-country rule, with trucks theoretically being able to move goods from the Cape to Cairo.Mattias Hedwall, partner and head of Baker McKenzie’s Global International Commercial and Trade Group, says the AfCFTA agreement will create the world ’s largest free trade zone by number of countries, and is expected to “revolutionise trade across the continent. “The message should be that freeing up trade is going to be the big engine of African growth through the 2020s and the first movers have the biggest advantages," he writes.One of the first industry organisations to move is the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), which has introduced the Cargo Defence Fund. The NSC says the fund has been established to “mitigate losses incurred by shippers, especially small-time importers and exporters, who may not have the financial muscle to pursue their legitimate maritime cla i m s”.The fund was announced at an AfCFTA workshop hosted in Lagos by Adaora Nwain, chief operating of f icer, trade services.AfCFTA has the potential of increasing intra-African trade by as much as $35 billion or 52% a year above the baseline by 2022, according to the NSC.It would disrupt existing trade f lows, with fewer imports and more exports. According to council’s executive secretary, Hassan Bello, imports from outside the continent would drop by US$10 billion a year, while agricultural and industrial exports could increase by US$4 billion and US$21 billion respectively above current levels.The rollout of AfCFTA is building up momentum.Until these issues are resolved intra-African trade will continue under existing arrangements such as the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) or as provided for by specific Regional Economic Community (REC) arrangements. Article 19 of the AfCFTA Agreement makes provision for RECs to co-exist with the AfCFTA, and according to an industry source.