South Africa has been a firm supporter of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and sees a lot of benefit, but economies like Angola and Nigeria remain sceptical. In North Africa momentum to ratify the agreement has also been slow despite most of the countries having signed the Kigali Declaration enacting the AfCFTA. According to Trudi Hartzenberg, executive director of Tralac, in the case of Nigeria and Angola protection of their own interests is at play, while North African countries have traditionally had stronger ties with Europe and the Middle East than their continental counterparts. With the AU calling on North African countries to ratify the AfCFTA, it was all about countries’ export profiles, said Hartzenberg.
“A country that exports mostly crude oil won’t necessarily be interested in boosting intra-African trade to the extent that South Africa is,” she said. “They will see that as competition and want to protect their domestic industry.” Whilst the AfCFTA reportedly will make the movement of goods easier in Africa it remains an extremely brave undertaking considering the sensitivity and complexity of the matter, involving 55 countries all at different levels of economic development. Speaking at an Exporters’ Club Western Cape meeting recently, Hartzenberg said there were also questions around how the AfCFTA would impact regional agreements as it explicitly recognised that the various regional communities would not disappear or be dissolved into a continental agreement.
CAPTION: A country that exports mostly crude oil won’t necessarily be interested in boosting intra-African trade. – Trudi Hartzenburg
