Trade Zone: Trade and African

trade zone: The eyes of the world are turned to Africa, Egyptian President and African Union Chairman Abdel Fattah al-Sissi said at the summit's opening ceremony, according to The Japan Times. AfCFTA will reinforce our negotiating position on the international stage. After four years of talks, an agreement to form a 55-nation trade bloc was reached in March, paving the way for Sunday's African Union summit in Niger where attendees will unveil which nation will host the trade zone's headquarters, when trading will start and discuss how exactly it will work. ; It is hoped that the African Continental Free Trade Area AfCFTA the largest since the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1994 will help unlock Africa's long-stymied economic potential by boosting intra-regional trade, strengthening supply chains and spreading expertise. It will represent an important step. Economists say significant challenges remain, including poor road and rail links, large areas of unrest, excessive border bureaucracy and petty corruption that have held back growth and integration. Africa has much catching up to do its intra-regional trade accounted for just 17 percent of exports in 2017 versus 59 percent in Asia and 69 percent in Europe, and Africa has missed out on the economic booms that other trade blocs have experienced in recent decades. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.