Africa creates TFTA - Cape Town to Cairo free-trade zone

 

African leaders have agreed to create the continent's largest free-trade zone, covering 26 countries in an area from Cape Town to Cairo.

The deal, signed in Egypt, is intended to ease the movement of goods across member countries which represent more than half the continent's GDP.

Since the end of colonial rule, governments have been discussing ways to boost intra-African trade.
The poor state of roads, railways and airlines have made it difficult.

Three existing trade blocs - the Southern African Development Community (Sadc); the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) - are to be united into a single new zone.

The pact - known as The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) - will then be officially unveiled at the upcoming summit of the African Union this weekend in South Africa.
The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) will include 26 countries – around half the continent’s total – uniting three existing trade blocs in eastern and southern Africa

Concluding the deal in Egypt will merely be the first step and it will need to be approved by each country's parliament, before the wheels are set in motion, she says.It is hoped that this will happen by 2017