African countries have formed a free trade area. This is the world’s largest free trade area in terms of the number of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organisation in 1948. It can create a single market with a population of 1.2 billion and a GDP of 2.5 trillion dollars.

Under the pact, the signatories have committed to remove tariffs on more than 90 per cent of goods. The agreement will address seven priority areas related to trade: policy, infrastructure, finance, information, market integration, productivity increase and trade facilitation.

The deal is expected to drive up intra-Africa trade by about 52 per cent by 2022 as compared with 2010. The exchange of industrial products is also projected to expand by 53 per cent.

The Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) agreement is expected to help cut commercial costs and enable African consumers to access diverse products with lower prices. Lower costs of production materials exchanged between CFTA member countries would raise the competitiveness of local producers and help create regional value chains.