AFRICA LOOKS WITHIN TO WEATHER GROWING GLOBAL TARIFF TURMOIL

African leaders are pushing to speed up implementation of a continent wide deal to boost trade as growing concerns over U.S.tariffs, including rates as high as 50 percent for Lesotho, threaten to decimate industries and hit economic growth.

The African Continental Free Trade Area pact designed to unify all 1.4 billion people under Africa’s more than 50 nations into a single market, has been legally ratified by 49 countries and officially launched trading in 2021.

But translation into action has been sluggish, with less than half of member states actively trading under the framework.

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AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene told  newsmen at the weekend that Africa has to accelerate the establishment of its own value chain systems. Mene said there is a perceived “unprecedented weaponisation of trade policy, investment policy, and nationalism,” something which he says has a “negative impact on the multilateral trading system.”

The World Bank estimates AfCFTA could increase Africa’s intra-continental exports by 81 percent and proponents point to last year’s 12.4 percent boost in intra-African trade, to 208 billion dollars, according to Afreximbank figures, as early signs of success.