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Commentaries

Afro-continental free trade areas and industrialisation in Africa: Exploring Afro-Canadian partnership for economic development

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ABSTRACT

The Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) represents one of the most ambitious plans and frameworks geared toward ensuring that Africa trade more with one another. This transformative development provides Canada with an entry point to put its inclusive trade agenda (ITA) into practice across the continent. This commentary examines industrialisation as one of the key areas of the AfCFTA and how this may help to foster economic development in Africa. This is followed by a brief description and analysis of Canada’s interests in Africa. The commentary concludes with practical recommendations on how Africa’s bold step forward with the AfCFTA now in place offers Canada an opportunity to re(de)fine the country’s trade, development, and diplomatic linkages with Africa.

RÉSUMÉ

La zone de libre‐échange continentale africaine (ZLECAF) représente l'un des plans et des cadres les plus ambitieux visant à assurer que les pays d'Afrique augmentent les échanges commerciaux entre eux. Ce développement transformateur offre au Canada un point d'entrée pour mettre en pratique son programme de commerce inclusif à travers le continent. Ce commentaire examine l'industrialisation en tant que domaine‐clé du ZLECAF et comment cela peut contribuer à stimuler le développement économique en Afrique. Il est suivi d'une brève description et analyse des intérêts du Canada en Afrique. Le commentaire se termine par des recommandations pratiques sur la façon dont la démarche audacieuse de l'Afrique, vis‐à‐vis de l'accord de libre‐échange actuellement en place, offre au Canada une occasion d'affiner et de redéfinir les liens commerciaux, de développement et diplomatiques du pays avec l'Afrique.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

We thank the African Trade Policy Centre, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa for sponsoring two workshops to Carleton University, Ottawa in Canada and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, where this paper was presented and authors received valuable feedback

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