With 44 of 55 AU countries signing a free trade agreement, intra-continental trade within Africa is expected to flourish. With bureaucratic red tape removed from the trading process it should theoretically allow the process of trade to be less expensive; it should specifically give lesser developed African nations a more even chance to compete in the global market. what makes this even more interesting is that this is the biggest trade agreement since the formation of the World Trade Organization in 1995. However Nigeria as well as South Africa have yet to sign onto this agreement, and not coincidentally they are two of the strongest economies within Africa. Both of these countries have similar fears; that their states will be taken advantage of and essentially become dumping grounds for finished African goods. Nigeria has expressed they are completely against it, however South Africa would be willing to sign if further legislation was added to the agreement that gave them more favorable circumstances. In my opinion the situation here is someone similar to that of the UK as well as the US, and just strong independent economies in general. They simply don’t want to be taken advantage of in any economic deal even if it’s at the cost of lesser states. Of course this is completely understandable as the public has seen the UK react similar with Brexit and the US pushing more nationalistic policies. Overall I simply believe it’s an interesting dynamic and I am interested in seeing how successful the deal will play out in the long run.
