What does the AfCFTA mean for an EU-Africa trade agreement?

Abstract

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is primarily a project to promote intra-African trade, but it also seeks to further the African Union’s Agenda 2063 aspirations to enhance the competitiveness of African economies and strengthen “Africa’s place in global trade”.1 The implementation of the AfCFTA will have implications not only for African consumers, firms and governments, but also for Africa’s trade and investment relations with external partners. Recognising this, the European Union (EU), Africa’s foremost trade partner and a committed supporter of the AfCFTA, has set out its vision of the AfCFTA as a step towards the “long-term objective of a continent-to- continent free trade area between Africa and the EU”.