African countries have embarked on an ambitious process of integrating their markets beyond existing regional arrangements to create the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). While a trade agreement, the ambitions of the AfCFTA go far beyond raising intra-African trade, to establishing regional value chains (RVCs) and promoting continent-wide industrialisation. Beyond the reduction of tariffs and non-tariff barriers, the AfCFTA’s success will therefore depend on a range of other factors, including its ability to encourage domestic and foreign investment to take advantage of expanded markets.
At the same time, the EU’s Global Gateway seeks to connect support to trade corridors with investments and access to critical raw materials. Against this backdrop, the AfCFTA Protocol on Investment represents an important step towards creating an environment conducive to investment within the African Continent. Nonetheless, such formal, legal mechanisms must be implemented and used to have an effect, raising questions for policymakers in Africa and their partners about how best to build on and support such mechanisms to promote the underlying goal of African economic transformation.
- the EU's international role | international cooperation
- Friday 1 December 2023, 11:00 - 13:00 (CET)
Practical information
- When
- Friday 1 December 2023, 11:00 - 13:00 (CET)
- Where
- InfoPoint and Webex Meetings
- Languages
- English, French
- Organisers
- International Partnerships InfoPoint
Description
This InfoPoint session will be a panel discussion on the AfCFTA, its current status and ambitions on industrialisation and how those might be met, both through the AfCFTA Investment Protocol, and building on EU support through the Global Gateway.
The InfoPoint will begin with an overview of the issues by the chair before the following three questions are addressed by the panellists.
- To what extent do harmonised legal frameworks and dispute resolution mechanisms address the key barriers to domestic and foreign investment in Africa to take advantage of a larger continental market?
- What additional accompanying measures or support will be required to ensure the effectiveness of the Investment protocol and ensure the industrialisation and RVC ambitions can be met?
- With the EU's Global Gateway intended to encourage public and private investments along African trade corridors, how should these initiatives be shaped to encourage investments that contribute to AfCFTA objectives of intra-African trade, investment and value-addition?
Speakers
- Francis Mangeni, Coordinator of Regional Advisors on the African Continental Free Trade Area, Secretariat of the AfCFTA
- Professor Dirk willem te Velde, Director, International Economic Development group, Principal Research Fellow, ODI
- Suzy Nikièma, Director Investment, IISD
- Professor Felix Okatch, Chairman Emeritus, Association of Professional Societies in East Africa (APSEA)
- Moderated by Bruce Byiers, ECDPM
Registration