The Dual Effects of COVID-19 on Intra-African Trade: A Viewpoint of the AfCFTA

Africa’s integration came a long way over the decades, culminating into the recently signed African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). At the very least, regional integration implies free movement of goods (and people) across economic and political boundaries. This ‘freedom’ faced a significant threat due to the dual challenges of the ‘economic’ and ‘health’ effects of the coronavirus pandemic adding to a list of already existing complexities. Will new trade models be required? Is the continent ready for such models and at what phase can these be effectively applied? Given the idiosyncrasies which characterise the continent (for instance, political, social, religious, geopolitical structures), is the AfCFTA still feasible in this new global context? This paper will attempt, using largely economic arguments and to a smaller extent the health and legal rationale, how some we can answer some of these pertinent questions. Among others, opportunities lie in new acceleration adoption of new technological innovations such as virtual world and digital currencies. The paper also argues for a new ‘health convergence’ policy to complement the existing macroeconomic convergence criteria. The pandemic calls for a new trade trajectory and strategies. There will be challenges as well as opportunities and this paper seeks to bring them to light.