Transcript The Free Trade Agreement in Africa

THE FREE TRADE
AGREEMENT IN
AFRICA
ON INTERNATIONAL
TRADE
DONE BY:
DADOBOEVA
FARANGIS
African Free Trade Zone Agreement
(AFTZ)
Countries
Involved:
Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Angola, Botswana,
Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Dominican
Republic, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho,
Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambi
que, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Swazil
and, South Africa, Tanzania, United Republic
Of, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Area of
goods, energy, infrastructure
Cooperation:
• Signed at: 2008
• Summary:
• The leaders of three African trading blocs signed an
agreement to create a free trade zone of 26 countries with a
GDP of an estimated $624bn (£382.9bn).
• It is hoped the deal will ease access to markets within the
region and end problems arising from the fact several
countries belong to multiple groups.
The deal also aims to strengthen the bloc's bargaining power
when negotiating international deals.
Analysts say the agreement will help intra-regional trade and
boost growth.
The three blocs which struck the deal were the Southern
African Development Community (SADC), the East African
Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and
Southern Africa (Comesa).
The agreement will also lend its backing to joint infrastructure
and energy projects in the zone.
• Twenty-six eastern and southern African nations are
making progress toward agreeing on a free trade area
that will create a market with nearly 600 million people
and combined gross domestic product of $1 trillion,
South African President Jacob Zuma said.
• “This market scale could launch a sizeable part of the
continent onto a new developmental trajectory,” Zuma
told a conference hosted by Bloomberg LP in
Johannesburg today. “The free trade area will form the
basis for an Africa-wide free trade agreement, which
could create a single market of $2.6 trillion and a
population of over 1 billion people.”
• South Africa is focusing on building ties with the rest of
the continent amid sluggish demand for its exports
from its traditional European trading partners.
The International Monetary Fundexpects sub-Saharan
Africa’s economy to grow 6.1 percent this year.
• “There remains ongoing uncertainty in the global
economy, with the euro zone in particular
continuing to struggle,” Zuma said. “Africa’s rise
over the past decade has been very real. The size
of the African economy has more than tripled since
2000. This growth is predicted to continue in the
foreseeable future, giving rise to a new Africa
paradigm: Africa as the new growth frontier.”
• South Africa was the
biggest source of foreign
direct investment into the
rest of Africa in 2012,
participating in projects
that created more than
45,000 jobs, according to
the president.
• “Our other partners on the continent such as
Nigeria, Kenya and increasingly Angola, are also
taking up the cause of investing on the African
continent,” he said. “Intra-Africa investments should
define the new Africa paradigm.”
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