The Challenge of Overlapping Regional Economic Communities in Africa: Lessons for the Continental Free Trade Area from the Failures of the Tripartite Free Trade Area

Intellectual property and the African continental free trade area: lessons and recommendations for the IP protocol

“…These principles are common to other trade agreements and are found in Article 6 of the TFTA Agreement and explained in the modalities for negotiation (COMESA, EAC, SADC, 2018). These explanations are applicable to the AfCFTA agreement and each has been discussed in detail by other scholars elsewhere (Desta and Gérout, 2018, p. 137). For illustrative purposes, this section will only summarise and comment on the first eight principles (paras (a)–(h)).…”

“…(f)], which means working from the foundation of gains already made and, where achievable, improving or bettering them. However, as noted by Desta and Gérout, this is more easily said than done because a technical scrutiny of the actual position of RECs’ liberalisation shows that the TFTA would not be able to preserve the REC acquis (Desta and Gérout, 2018, p. 132). The variable geometry principle [para (c)] means that the negotiation and implementation of the AfCFTA will provide leeway and policy space for member states to progress at different speeds in view of their socio-economic context; to provide means to reduce “distributional losses” and grant certain preferences to eligible states (Gathii, 2011, p. 35).…”

“…The variable geometry principle [para (c)] means that the negotiation and implementation of the AfCFTA will provide leeway and policy space for member states to progress at different speeds in view of their socio-economic context; to provide means to reduce “distributional losses” and grant certain preferences to eligible states (Gathii, 2011, p. 35). Again, it has been noted that this principle complicates the TFTA, and by extension, the AfCFTA because it enables different standards to be simultaneously in place (Desta and Gérout, 2018 p. 133). Further, states with unique “trade needs, specificities and circumstances” will be granted flexibility and special and differential (S&D) treatment will “apply to flexibilities in transitional periods for liberalization, exemptions as well as other measures within […] negotiations applicable to Member/Partner States at different levels of socio-economic development” (COMESA, EAC, SADC, 2018, p. 7).…”

“…Intellectual property (IP) is currently high on the African Union (AU)’s agenda because of its prominence in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as the focus of current negotiations, which will result in the adoption of a protocol. The AfCFTA is a significant milestone towards the realisation of the African regional trade agenda, which has a history dating back to 1963 (Desta and Gérout, 2018, p. 113). A detailed overview historical developments will not be repeated here.…”