Leaders from 26 countries across Africas eastern half from Egypt to South Africa have already agreed to work toward a free-trade zone that would remove tariffs and customs between them. Their common market, encompassing over 600 million people would link three existing trade zones in southern and East Africa with a combined gross domestic product of USD 1.2 trillion.
The existing zones are the East African Community, created in 2000; the Southern African Development Community, founded in 1980 and an overlapping Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa that also took shape in the 1980s.
Over USD 100 billion in goods passed between members of the three blocs in 2014, a threefold increase from a decade ago, according to documents written by officials drafting the new, larger trade zone to be called the Tripartite Free Trade Area, according to theaustralian.com.au.
Economists cautioned that, taking into account the multi-decade history of existing trade blocs, the new, wider market is likely to face years of bargaining and delays before more African countries are stitched together. While investment between African countries is on the upswing, cross-border trade still makes up just over a tenth of the continental total, the same source points out.
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