The African Continental Free Trade Area : Economic and Distributional Effects

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement will create the largest free trade area in the world, measured by the number of countries participating. The pact will connect 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined GDP valued at $3.4 trillion. It has the potential to li...

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Main Author:	World Bank
Other Authors:	Maliszewska, Maryla
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2020
Subjects:	REGIONAL TRADE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT PREFERENTIAL TRADE AGREEMENTS REGIONAL INTEGRATION
Online Access:	https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/216831595998182418/the-african-continental-free-trade-area-economic-and-distributional-effects http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34139

id	okr-10986-34139
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-341392021-05-25T09:48:16Z The African Continental Free Trade Area : Economic and Distributional Effects World Bank Maliszewska, Maryla Ruta, Michele REGIONAL TRADE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT PREFERENTIAL TRADE AGREEMENTS REGIONAL INTEGRATION The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement will create the largest free trade area in the world, measured by the number of countries participating. The pact will connect 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined GDP valued at $3.4 trillion. It has the potential to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035. But achieving its full potential will depend on putting in place significant policy reforms and trade facilitation measures. The scope of the agreement is considerable. It will reduce tariffs among member countries and cover policy areas, such as trade facilitation and services, as well as regulatory measures, such as sanitary standards and technical barriers to trade. It will complement existing subregional economic communities and trade agreements by offering a continent-wide regulatory framework and by regulating policy areas—such as investment and intellectual property rights protection—that have not been covered in most subregional agreements. The African Continental Free Trade Area: Economic and Distributional Effects quantifies the long-term implications of the agreement for growth, trade, poverty reduction, and employment. Its analysis goes beyond that in previous studies that have largely focused on tariff and nontariff barriers in goods—by including the effects of services and trade facilitation measures, as well as the distributional impacts on poverty, employment, and wages of female and male workers. It is designed to guide policy makers as they develop and implement the extensive range of reforms needed to realize the substantial rewards that the agreement offers. The analysis shows that full implementation of AfCFTA could boost income by 7 percent, or nearly $450 billion, in 2014 prices and market exchange rates. The agreement would also significantly expand African trade—particularly intraregional trade in manufacturing. In addition, it would increase employment opportunities and wages for unskilled workers and help close the wage gap between men and women. 2020-07-17T15:11:16Z 2020-07-17T15:11:16Z 2020-07-27 Book https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/216831595998182418/the-african-continental-free-trade-area-economic-and-distributional-effects 978-1-4648-1559-1 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34139 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Publications & Research :: Publication Publications & Research Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	REGIONAL TRADE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT PREFERENTIAL TRADE AGREEMENTS REGIONAL INTEGRATION
spellingShingle	REGIONAL TRADE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT PREFERENTIAL TRADE AGREEMENTS REGIONAL INTEGRATION World Bank The African Continental Free Trade Area : Economic and Distributional Effects
geographic_facet	Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
description	The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement will create the largest free trade area in the world, measured by the number of countries participating. The pact will connect 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined GDP valued at $3.4 trillion. It has the potential to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035. But achieving its full potential will depend on putting in place significant policy reforms and trade facilitation measures. The scope of the agreement is considerable. It will reduce tariffs among member countries and cover policy areas, such as trade facilitation and services, as well as regulatory measures, such as sanitary standards and technical barriers to trade. It will complement existing subregional economic communities and trade agreements by offering a continent-wide regulatory framework and by regulating policy areas—such as investment and intellectual property rights protection—that have not been covered in most subregional agreements. The African Continental Free Trade Area: Economic and Distributional Effects quantifies the long-term implications of the agreement for growth, trade, poverty reduction, and employment. Its analysis goes beyond that in previous studies that have largely focused on tariff and nontariff barriers in goods—by including the effects of services and trade facilitation measures, as well as the distributional impacts on poverty, employment, and wages of female and male workers. It is designed to guide policy makers as they develop and implement the extensive range of reforms needed to realize the substantial rewards that the agreement offers. The analysis shows that full implementation of AfCFTA could boost income by 7 percent, or nearly $450 billion, in 2014 prices and market exchange rates. The agreement would also significantly expand African trade—particularly intraregional trade in manufacturing. In addition, it would increase employment opportunities and wages for unskilled workers and help close the wage gap between men and women.
author2	Maliszewska, Maryla
author_facet	Maliszewska, Maryla World Bank
format	Book
author	World Bank
author_sort	World Bank
title	The African Continental Free Trade Area : Economic and Distributional Effects
title_short	The African Continental Free Trade Area : Economic and Distributional Effects
title_full	The African Continental Free Trade Area : Economic and Distributional Effects
title_fullStr	The African Continental Free Trade Area : Economic and Distributional Effects
title_full_unstemmed	The African Continental Free Trade Area : Economic and Distributional Effects
title_sort	african continental free trade area : economic and distributional effects
publisher	Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate	2020
url	https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/216831595998182418/the-african-continental-free-trade-area-economic-and-distributional-effects http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34139
_version_	1764478589509566464

The African Continental Free Trade Area : Economic and Distributional Effects

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