Directions of formation and potential effect of African continental free zone trade

Abstract

This article analyzes the history of integration processes in Africa, the main documents that became in 2018 the basis for the signing of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, ACFTA as the largest integration mega-project in the modern world economy. The author considers the main provisions of the framework agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area, its institutional structure and the rules of the Protocol on trade in goods as the basis of trade liberalization on the continent. The achievements in the framework of subregional integration agreements called regional economic communities and their further fate, as well as disintegrating factors of an objective plan, the presence of which will become the main obstacle to achieving the continental free trade area, are revealed in detail. The main trends in African foreign trade and the potential effect on its dynamics in the formation of ACFTA are identified. In conclusion, the prospects for integration processes in Africa are identified.