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Covid-19 delays launch of African Continental Free Trade Area
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Signed by 55 countries of the continent, AfCFTA was expected to create a $3.4 trillion economic bloc with 1.3 billion people across Africa.
Africa’s landmark trade agreement, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), has suffered a delay to its operational launch, which was set for July 1, 2020. This was due to the disruptive impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It is obviously not possible to commence trade as we had intended on 1 July under the current circumstances," said Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of AfCFTA, during a conference call late last month. He, however, did not state whether a new date for the launch had been agreed.
Signed by 55 countries of the continent, AfCFTA was expected to create a $3.4 trillion economic bloc with 1.3 billion people across Africa. This constitutes the largest new trading bloc since the World Trade Organization was formed in 1994.
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