David Luke shares his top recommendations on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
On January 1st 2021, Africa started trading as one bloc under the AfCFTA. We asked David Luke to lend his support to knowledge sharing on African trade by sharing with us his top reports and articles on the AfCFTA.
David Luke is the Coordinator of the African Trade Policy Centre at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). He is responsible for leading ECA’s research, training, capacity building and policy advisory services on inclusive trade policies, and in particular the boosting of intra-trade and the continental free trade area initiatives.
He tweets @DavidLukeTrade and below are his recommendations.
Explore and be inspired!
Inclusive Trade in Africa: The African Free Trade Area in Comparative Perspective co-edited
By David Luke and Jaime Macleod (2019)
This paper compiles contributions from leading trade policy authors across the African continent and beyond who offer insights into the development and implementation of the AfCFTA. The document analyses what important lessons can be drawn from the experiences of regional integration in and beyond Africa, including the success stories like ASEAN as well as failures like the Free Trade Agreement of the Americans.
The Future Report: Making the AfCFTA Work for Women and Youth
By The AfCFTA Secretariat and the UNDP (2020)
This report presents opportunities in the AfCFTA, as pursued by women and youth entrepreneurs and business owners, and discusses ongoing efforts by Governments and development institutions to ensure that these groups derive maximum benefit from the Agreement. We take note of the benefits expected from the AfCFTA: (i) production revolution across Africa, (ii) creating jobs, (iii) rising incomes and (iv) lifting more and more people out of poverty.
Op-ed on Making African Trade Greener
By David Luke and Lily Sommer (2020)
Benefits of the AfCFTA are threatened by climate change and variability which are expected to affect Africa, the rise in temperatures more than global averages and producing extreme weather events. We highlight three priorities countering these challenges: (i) member states not including environment-friendly technology on sensitive lists when finalising their tariff schedules, (ii) the crafting of incentives to facilitate investment in green-friendly infrastructure, energy and research and development, and (iii) requiring for E-commerce rules to ensure services that do not exacerbate emissions, and to fast-track the use of efficient, digitalised logistics.
Gender Mainstreaming in AfCFTA National Strategies – Why it Matters for the SDGs
By David Luke and Nadira Bayart (2020)
This paper describes how UNECA is working towards the realisation of African countries seizing the benefits the AfCFTA has to offer, especially the benefit of greater gender equality. This is through gender mainstreaming in aspects of identifying gender specific barriers confronting the female: (i) traders, (ii) producers, (iii) entrepreneurs, and (iv) wage workers in agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors.
Image Credit: IISD
Why Trade Matters for African Development
By David Luke (2020)
The blog highlights the challenges faced in informal cross border trade in Africa: (i) lower value transactions in both goods and services, (ii) high trade costs (iii) associated with high rates of poverty.
Image credit: LSE