The ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development was held in Yokohama, Japan, from August 20 to 22, with one of the thematic events, ‘Paving the Way to Africa’s Single Market: AfCFTA’s Journey for the Last Six Years and its Future’, organised by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in cooperation with the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat.

The session’s speakers included JICA president Akihiko Tanaka and WCO secretary-general Ian Saunders, who were joined by four panellists.

Two key matters forming part of the discussion were the major issues identified by each economic sector for further implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement, and the actions and initiatives needed to address them.

As background to the session, six years have passed since the AfCFTA Agreement entered into force in May 2019. Trade based on the agreement officially began on January 1, 2021. As of today, 54 countries have signed the agreement, while 48 countries have ratified/acceded to it. This makes the AfCFTA Agreement the fastest agreement to be ratified since the African Union (AU) was established. The agreement stipulates a review every five years from the date of its entry into force. Thus, May 2024 marked this milestone. At the thirty-seventh ordinary session of AU heads of State and government, held in February 2024, an instruction was issued to initiate a review of the agreement, a process now under way, led by the AfCFTA secretariat.

Currently, the AfCFTA Facilitated and Guided Trade Initiative (GTI) is being implemented in 43 member States to accelerate the full-scale implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement. Efforts are under way to promote the AfCFTA, including examination of the operational, institutional, legal and trade policy environment in each country for specific items. As of November 2024, nearly 1 300 trade transactions using the AfCFTA have been confirmed under the GTI.

On the other hand, some technical instruments, such as the annexes on rules of origin, national schedules for tariff concessions on goods, and national schedules for specific commitments on services, are still under negotiation, indicating that some aspects remain in the development stage.

Given the ever-evolving landscape of international trade, which may increase the importance of regional trade and Africa’s pursuit of stronger economic integration, it is a timely moment to review the AfCFTA, which was launched with the expectation that it would accelerate Africa’s economic development and strengthen competitiveness.

The session’s objective was to consider the path to further tariff elimination in the future. Given newly added challenges, such as tariffs and trade policy uncertainty, it becomes increasingly important to strengthen cooperation and collaboration among relevant parties concerned with the AfCFTA. Therefore, the session aimed to build a common understanding of the ongoing efforts to overcome challenges that may be preventing the AfCFTA from reaching its full potential, and to identify needs and future actions towards the realisation of a single African market.

The session’s expected outcomes included a clear understanding of the AfCFTA’s progress and bottlenecks, the sharing of innovative approaches and good practices towards the utilisation of the AfCFTA Agreement by African countries and institutions, and a discussion of international cooperation, the importance of African ownership, and inclusive partnerships among stakeholders, both within and outside Africa. One of the keys to the utilisation of the agreement is the proper application of complex product-specific rules of origin, which the African public and private sectors are facing for the first time. As one of the outcomes of the JICA-WCO joint project, 40 master trainers, some of whom are also WCO accredited experts in the field of rules of origin, were developed in 21 WCO member customs administrations in Africa to implement the AfCFTA Agreement.

The event also marked the completion of the ‘Rules-of-Origin Handbook’, developed through the WCO Master Trainer Programme on Rules of Origin to support the implementation of the AfCFTA, conducted under the WCO/JICA joint project.

During the discussion, the panellists highlighted the crucial role of customs administrations, as they are responsible for applying trade facilitation measures and preferential duties, and for distinguishing between legitimate goods and high-risk shipments. Through this, customs administrations provide clarity and stability to international trade, thereby facilitating the realisation of the trade benefits of the AfCFTA.