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RESEARCH PRODUCT

On the African Continental Free Trade Area

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Africa-wide integration projects have competed with step-wise regional integration since independence. This chapter examines the new project of an African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The project’s potential to become an economic game-changer for Africa is analysed alongside the likely pitfalls of the arrangement. We conclude that while a well-staged AfCFTA can resolve a number of critical issues associated with intra-African integration, it cannot replace existing RECs, especially not with respect to negotiating extra-regional trade agreements. It is argued that to avoid undercutting the entire process, the entrenched logic of exceptions and exclusions from tariff liberalization must not be reproduced at the continental level, and a generic developmental set of rules of origin must be defined. The chapter closes with a description of the essential elements that must be included in a higher-order project of economic integration at both the regional and continental level in order to respond to what the literature calls transformative or developmental regionalism.