The African Continental Free Trade Area Making the Most of Free Trade and Investment in Global Markets

This book explores the regulatory, institutional, and policy frameworks needed to enable the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to be effective. It examines the opportunities of African free trade and how it can advance regional integration and sustained economic growth on the African continent. It highlights the potential for trade and investment within Africa, and the ways in which the AfCFTA can help the continent overcome development challenges and create a more dynamic economy that generates jobs and alleviates poverty. 

This book sets out a policy framework to enable the effective establishment of the AfCFTA and economic development within Africa. It will be relevant to students, researchers, and policymakers interested in development economics and international trade.

1. The CFTA: Prerequisites for Realizing a Pan-African Market.- 2. A Multistakeholder Participation Machinery/Framework for AfCFTA negotiations.- 3. Addressing the Policy Disconnect of Services Trade: What a development friendly services chapter in the AfCFTA should consider.- 4. Bilateral Investment Treaties and Regional Investment Regulation in Africa: Towards a Continental Investment Area?.- 5. Africa's preferential trade: Shaping AGOA post-2015 for investment in the CFTA.- 6. Africa's LDC trade: Harnessing the Variable Geometry of the AfCFTA and beyond.- 7. The Political Economy of Preferential Trade in the Global Economy: Why African countries needs to refrain from other FTA initiatives.- 8. Making the most of free trade and investment in regional and global markets.

Laura Páez is a Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa