The African Continental Free Trade Area: Toward a New Legal Model for Trade and Development

66 Pages Posted: 27 May 2020 Last revised: 7 May 2021

See all articles by Katrin Kuhlmann

Katrin Kuhlmann

Georgetown University Law Center

Akinyi Lisa Agutu

Georgetown University Law Center

Date Written: March 16, 2020

Abstract

International trade law is at a turning point, and the rules as we know them are being broken, rewritten, and reshaped at all levels. At the same time that institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO) face significant change and a global pandemic challenges the rules of the market, Africa’s new mega-regional trade agreement, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), is emerging as a promising framework for redesigning international economic law. As this Article will argue, the AfCFTA presents a new normative approach to trade and development that is positioned to rewrite the rules in a more inclusive and equitable way and, over time, possibly affect global trade well beyond the African continent.

Historically, trade and development have been linked through the framework of Special and Differential Treatment (S&D), which has been a central feature of the WTO and is increasingly shaping regional trade agreements (RTAs) as well. Although the connection between trade and development is more important than ever before, traditional S&D is not positioned to deliver on broader priorities of social and economic development in the current international climate. Fortunately, as this Article will argue, Africa’s approach under the new AfCFTA sets the stage for a needed refresh of S&D. While the AfCFTA incorporates traditional aspects of S&D, it also includes elements of a forward-looking, rules-based approach to further economic and social development, advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This new dimension of S&D holds great potential for promoting integration through trade, representing the needs of a diverse group of countries in the rulemaking process, and reshaping international economic law more broadly to generate positive development outcomes.

This Article begins with an assessment of the AfCFTA as an alternative model for trade and development law, evaluating the agreement in the historical and evolving context of S&D and examining its role in shaping a new normative approach to S&D. The AfCFTA, we argue, represents a shift from using S&D as a largely defensive trade approach to one that positions S&D as an affirmative tool for achieving sustainable development through the design and implementation of the rules of trade themselves, while still maintaining flexibility for countries that need it. This new approach may finally replace the old trade paradigm of the ”haves and have nots” with a system in which trade rules can be designed to benefit all.

Although the AfCFTA is still at an early stage and will have to overcome formidable challenges, this Article provides an initial assessment of the AfCFTA’s proactive new model in the context of the substantive areas of law identified as next-stage (Phase II) negotiating priorities: intellectual property rights (IPR), investment, and competition law. The Article’s comparative assessment draws upon the laws of African nations, African and international RTAs, and other proposals for international legal reform.

Finally, the Article looks to the future, positing that the AfCFTA could be the best legal instrument available to break the stalemate in international rulemaking, design new trade law approaches to pressing issues like global health and food security, and close the loop between trade rules and development goals, including the seventeen SDGs. As the AfCFTA is rolled out and implemented, it could have a profound impact on trade and development law, reshaping the rules for Africa and perhaps the world as well.

Keywords: International trade, African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, international economic law

Suggested Citation

Kuhlmann, Katrin and Agutu, Akinyi Lisa, The African Continental Free Trade Area: Toward a New Legal Model for Trade and Development (March 16, 2020). Georgetown Journal of International Law, Vol. 51, No. 4, 2020, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3599438 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3599438

Katrin Kuhlmann (Contact Author)

Georgetown University Law Center ( email )

600 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
United States

Akinyi Lisa Agutu

Georgetown University Law Center ( email )

Washington, DC
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
1,257
Abstract Views
3,803
Rank
30,262
PlumX Metrics