The African Continental Free Trade Area: Local Content Requirements as a Means to Addressing Africa's Productive Capacity Constraints

The AfCFTA is rooted in the Abuja Treaty of 1991, in which Member States of the former Organisation of African Unity, the predecessor of the African Union (“AU”), “agreed on a roadmap for the creation of a common African market.” In January 2012, during the 18th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, AU Member States adopted a decision to establish a Continental Free Trade Area. In June 2015, AU Member States launched negotiations for the establishment of the AfCFTA. On March 21, 2018, “44 African heads of state and government officials met in Kigali, Rwanda, to sign the framework [agreement],” thereby setting the stage for the AfCFTA. Under article 23 of the AfCFTA, the agreement would enter into force thirty days after its ratification by at least twenty-two countries. On May 30, 2019, the AfCFTA entered into force, thirty days after the twenty-second instrument of ratification was deposited with the AU Commission. On July 7, 2019, the operational phase of the AfCFTA was launched in Niamey, Niger at the Twelfth Extra-Ordinary AU Summit, at which point twenty-seven Member States had already ratified the agreement. This marked a diplomatic and political success in light of the short timeframe since the trade negotiations began in 2015, the ambitious liberalization goals, “and the heterogeneity and large number” of Member States. As of October 4, 2021, thirty-eight countries had ratified the AfCFTA.