{"id":6407,"date":"2019-06-27T08:42:07","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T13:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/?p=6407"},"modified":"2024-08-09T18:29:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T16:29:59","slug":"afcfta-enters-into-force-phase-ii-on-investment-competition-iprs-to-last-through-2020-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2019\/06\/27\/afcfta-enters-into-force-phase-ii-on-investment-competition-iprs-to-last-through-2020-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"AfCFTA enters into force; Phase II on investment, competition, IPRs to last through 2020\u20132021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/tag\/afcfta\/\">African Continental Free Trade Area<\/a><\/u> (AfCFTA) entered into force on May 30, 2019, with the first phase of the deal taking effect for 24 countries. An extraordinary summit on the trade agreement is planned for July 7, 2019 in Niamey, Niger, while Phase II negotiations on intellectual property rights (IPRs), investment and competition policy are expected to take at least another year.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <u><a href=\"https:\/\/au.int\/en\/pressreleases\/20190608\/ministers-trade-deliberate-operationalization-afcfta-ahead-niamey-summit\">African Union (AU) Commission<\/a><\/u>, as of early June there have been 24 instruments of ratification deposited for the AfCFTA. The minimum for entry into force was 22. Of the AU\u2019s 55 countries, 52 have signed the agreement, with the <u><a href=\"https:\/\/au.int\/sites\/default\/files\/treaties\/36437-sl-AGREEMENT%20ESTABLISHING%20THE%20AFRICAN%20CONTINENTAL%20FREE%20TRADE%20AREA%20%287%29.pdf\">exceptions<\/a><\/u> being Benin, Eritrea and Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>The AfCFTA aims to establish \u201ca single market for goods, services, facilitated by movement of persons in order to deepen the economic integration of the African continent,\u201d according to its <u><a href=\"https:\/\/au.int\/sites\/default\/files\/treaties\/36437-treaty-consolidated_text_on_cfta_-_en.pdf\">final text<\/a><\/u>. The agreement also states as an objective the \u201csustainable and inclusive socio-economic development, gender equality and structural transformation of the State Parties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other objectives include eventually developing a customs union spanning the continent\u2019s countries; slashing tariffs and removing non-tariff barriers; and improving intra-country cooperation in investment, IPR, customs and trade facilitation, competition policy and other trade-related areas.<\/p>\n<p>The text now in force does not yet include tariff schedules for goods, nor does it have completed schedules for services, which are both still under negotiation.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the Phase II negotiations, the countries involved are now looking to negotiate protocols on investment, competition and intellectual property rights. Further details on what may feature in those documents may become clearer after the terms of reference for the related working groups are issued. <u><a href=\"https:\/\/unctad.org\/en\/PublicationsLibrary\/diaepcbinf2019d2_en.pdf\">Expert meetings<\/a><\/u> on the investment protocol were held in November 2018 and February 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou <u><a href=\"http:\/\/archives.au.int\/bitstream\/handle\/123456789\/2756\/Assembly%20AU%204%20%28XXXII%29%20_E.pdf?sequence=2&amp;isAllowed=y\">recommended<\/a><\/u> to the AU earlier this year that they extend to June 2020 a previous January 2020 deadline for concluding negotiations on the investment, competition and IPR protocols. The AU Assembly <u><a href=\"http:\/\/archives.au.int\/bitstream\/handle\/123456789\/2754\/2019_February%20Summit_keyDecision_E.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y\">subsequently said<\/a><\/u> that the draft legal text for those protocols should be submitted by January 2021 for the assembly\u2019s adoption.<!--more--><\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips7','United Nations Conference on Trade and Development'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips8','Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre Comercio y Desarrollo'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips32','International Institute for Sustainable Development<!--more-->'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips33','Institut international du d\u00e9veloppement durable'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips34','Instituto Internacional para el Desarrollo Sostenible'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips60','Investment Treaty News'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips63','Bilateral investment treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips70','free trade agreement'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips76','multilateral investment court'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips100','investissement direct \u00e9tranger'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips104','responsabilit\u00e9 sociale des entreprises'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips112','Objetivo de Desarrollo Sostenible'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips114','Sistema de Tribunales de Inversiones'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips118','Union europ\u00e9enne'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips119','Uni\u00f3n Europea'); <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) entered into force on May 30, 2019, with the first phase of the deal taking effect for 24 countries. An extraordinary summit on the trade agreement is planned for July 7, 2019 in Niamey, Niger, while Phase II negotiations on intellectual property rights (IPRs), investment and competition policy are expected to take at least another year.<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips70','free trade agreement'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[1962,1911,1966],"class_list":["post-6407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-afcfta","tag-africa","tag-au"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}