The Case for the African Continental Free Trade Area
The AfCFTA, Africa’s trade flows and industrialization
The prevailing story of Africa’s exports since 2000 has been that of the strong impact of the commodities supercycle. As Figure 1 shows, the bulk of Africa’s impressive almost-three-fold increase in exports, from $194 billion in 2000 to $544 billion in 2014, is due mostly to the expansion of extractive exports and the commodity price boom. This has contributed to Africa’s headline growth figures but has not been conducive to the economic transformation Africa requires to industrialize and realize long-run sustainable growth.
