African regional economic communities are recognized and serve as pillars for the establishment of the African Economic Community (AEC): ECOWAS, EAC, COMESA, ECCAS, SADC, UMA, IGAD, and CEN-SAD.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a free trade area which was established in 2018. It was created African Union commission member states. The free-trade area is the largest in the world in terms of the number of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organization. The agreement was brokered by the African Union (AU) and was signed on by 44 of its 55 member states in Kigali, Rwanda on March 21, 2018.
The agreement initially requires members to remove tariffs from 90% of goods, allowing free access to commodities, goods, and services across the continent. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa estimates that the agreement will boost intra-African trade by 52 percent by 2022.
The general objectives of the agreement are to :
Free Trade Agreement, or FTA, is a treaty signed by two or more economies with the aim of lessening trade barriers among its signees. In such agreements/policies, commodities are exchanged with little or no tariffs, regulations, subsidization and restrictions throughout border crossings .