Volume 32, Issue 3, April 2021, Pages 346–364
Ndabereye Nzita Mugambi Paulin1
1 Docteur en Relations Internationales, Professeur à l’Université de Lubumbashi, RD Congo
Original language: French
Copyright © 2021 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The idea of a single African market, an African economic community is not new. It is even quite related to that of pan-Africanism as officially discussed in the aftermath of the massive emergence of new « independent » African states in the early 1960s.However, given the weakness of trade relations between African countries, estimated at only 16 percent compared to about 70 percent with Europe and Asia, the creation of an African continental free trade area has germinated and is making its way within the African Union. Its objective is to open up Africa to itself, a market with a population of about 1.2 billion and estimated to reach 2.5 billion by 2050.Its establishment does not respond to a dogma, but to a concrete desire to fluidify trade at the heart of the continent in order to make it a foundation for Africa's development. For, in its current form, inter-African trade is a paradox. The challenges presented by the implementation of the African Free Trade Area, one of the stages of integration for the creation of the African Economic Community, are of several orders and are likely to slow it down or lead it down. They are, among others, political, infrastructural, economic and legal.
Author Keywords: Free trade, integration, Africa.
Ndabereye Nzita Mugambi Paulin1
1 Docteur en Relations Internationales, Professeur à l’Université de Lubumbashi, RD Congo
Original language: French
Copyright © 2021 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The idea of a single African market, an African economic community is not new. It is even quite related to that of pan-Africanism as officially discussed in the aftermath of the massive emergence of new « independent » African states in the early 1960s.However, given the weakness of trade relations between African countries, estimated at only 16 percent compared to about 70 percent with Europe and Asia, the creation of an African continental free trade area has germinated and is making its way within the African Union. Its objective is to open up Africa to itself, a market with a population of about 1.2 billion and estimated to reach 2.5 billion by 2050.Its establishment does not respond to a dogma, but to a concrete desire to fluidify trade at the heart of the continent in order to make it a foundation for Africa's development. For, in its current form, inter-African trade is a paradox. The challenges presented by the implementation of the African Free Trade Area, one of the stages of integration for the creation of the African Economic Community, are of several orders and are likely to slow it down or lead it down. They are, among others, political, infrastructural, economic and legal.
Author Keywords: Free trade, integration, Africa.
Abstract: (french)
L’idée d’un marché unique africain, d’une communauté économique africaine n’est pas une nouveauté. Elle est même assez liée à celle du panafricanisme tel qu’officiellement discuté au lendemain de l’émergence massive de nouveaux États « indépendants » africains, au début des années 1960.Toutefois, au regard de la faiblesse des relations commerciales entre pays africains, estimées à 16 % seulement contre environ 70 % avec l’Europe et l’Asie, la création d’une zone de libre-échange continentale africaine a germé et fait sa route au sein de l’Union africaine. Elle a pour objectif d’ouvrir l’Afrique sur elle-même, un marché qui compte environ 1,2 milliard d’habitants et qui, selon les estimations, va atteindre 2,5 milliards en 2050.Sa mise en place ne répond pas à un dogme, mais à une volonté concrète de fluidifier les échanges au cœur du continent afin d'en faire un socle pour le développement de l'Afrique. Car, sous sa forme actuelle, le commerce inter africain est un paradoxe. Les défis présentés par la mise en œuvre de la Zone de libre-échange africaine, une des étapes d’intégration pour la réalisation de la Communauté Economique Africaine, sont de plusieurs ordres et sont à même de la ralentir ou de la plomber. Ils sont, entre autres d’ordre politique, infrastructurel, économique, et juridique.
Author Keywords: Libre-échange, intégration, Afrique.
How to Cite this Article
Ndabereye Nzita Mugambi Paulin, “Zone de libre-échange continentale et intégration en Afrique: Défis méthodologiques et voies de sortie ?,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 346–364, April 2021.
