Making the Most of the African Continental Free Trade Area: Leveraging Trade and Foreign Direct Investment to Boost Growth and Reduce Poverty

Publication:
Making the Most of the African Continental Free Trade Area: Leveraging Trade and Foreign Direct Investment to Boost Growth and Reduce Poverty

dc.contributor.author	Echandi, Roberto
dc.contributor.author	Maliszewska, Maryla
dc.contributor.author	Steenbergen, Victor
dc.date.accessioned	2022-07-05T19:32:09Z
dc.date.available	2022-07-05T19:32:09Z
dc.date.issued	2022-06-30
dc.description.abstract	The creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provides a unique opportunity to boost growth, cut poverty, and reduce Africa’s dependence on the boom and-bust commodity cycle. A World Bank (2020) report estimates that the AfCFTA has the potential to raise income in the continent by 7 percent by 2035 and lift 40 million people out of extreme poverty, mainly by spurring intraregional trade (termed the “AfCFTA trade scenario” for purposes of this analysis). Reductions in nontariff barriers on goods and services and improvements in trade facilitation measures will account for about two thirds of the US$450 billion in potential income gains by removing long delays across most of the continent’s borders and lowering compliance costs in trade, making it easier for African businesses to become integrated into regional and global supply chains. This report builds on that earlier study by including potential gains arising from greater flows of foreign direct investment (FDI), termed the “AfCFTA FDI broadscenario,” and from deeper integration beyond trade, the “AfCFTA FDI deep scenario.” FDI has traditionally been low in Africa. The AfCFTA is likely to attract cross-border investment by eliminating tariff and nontariff barriers and replacing the existing patchwork of bilateral and regional trade deals with a single, unified market. Investors in any one of 55 member countries will have access to a continent of 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of US$3.4 trillion. Integration in global and regional value chains offers a further magnet for FDI and the jobs, investment, and know-how that FDI brings.	en
dc.identifier	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099305006222230294/P1722320bf22cd02c09f2b0b3b320afc4a7
dc.identifier.doi	10.1596/37623
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10986/37623
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	Washington, DC: World Bank
dc.rights	CC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holder	World Bank
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo
dc.subject	TRADE AND GROWTH
dc.subject	TRADE AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
dc.subject	REGIONAL AND GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS
dc.subject	GLOBAL PANDEMIC
dc.subject	INTRAREGIONAL TRADE
dc.subject	TERMS OF TRADE
dc.subject	REGIONAL VALUE CHAIN
dc.title	Making the Most of the African Continental Free Trade Area	en
dc.title.subtitle	Leveraging Trade and Foreign Direct Investment to Boost Growth and Reduce Poverty	en
dc.type	Book	en
dc.type	Livre	fr
dc.type	Libro	es
dspace.entity.type	Publication
okr.date.disclosure	2022-06-30
okr.date.doiregistration	2025-04-15T10:58:55.477195Z
okr.date.lastmodified	2022-06-23T00:00:00Z	en
okr.doctype	Report
okr.doctype	Publications & Research
okr.docurl	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099305006222230294/P1722320bf22cd02c09f2b0b3b320afc4a7
okr.guid	099305006222230294
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum	33847889
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum	33847889
okr.identifier.report	172891
okr.imported	true	en
okr.language.supported	en
okr.pdfurl	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099305006222230294/pdf/P1722320bf22cd02c09f2b0b3b320afc4a7.pdf	en
okr.region.administrative	Africa
okr.region.administrative	Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE)
okr.region.administrative	Africa Western and Central (AFW)
okr.region.geographical	Africa
okr.topic	Governance::Multinational & Corporate Governance
okr.topic	International Economics and Trade::Trade and Multilateral Issues
okr.topic	Governance::Regional Governance
okr.topic	International Economics and Trade::Trade and Regional Integration
okr.unit	EFI-MTI-TIC-Trade and RI (ETIRI)