IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jouafr/v8y2021i2d10.2991_jat.k.210428.001.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reaping the AfCFTA Potential Through Well-Functioning Rules of Origin

Author

Listed:
  • Komi Tsowou

    (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development)

  • Junior Davis

    (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development)

Abstract

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Rules of Origin (RoOs) determine the conditions for the application of the Agreement’s tariff preferences. The effectiveness of existing preferential trade agreements within the continent is undermined by heterogeneous RoO regimes and costly trade facilitation procedures. If these issues continue unchecked, they could harm the realization of AfCFTA ambitions. Here, we first discuss the economics of preferential RoOs, highlighting their associated benefits and costs within and beyond the African context. Second, we focus on the implementation of RoOs under the AfCFTA. We contend that cost-effective implementation is crucial to the AfCFTA RoO regime for production hubs to benefit from integrated African markets. Capacity building, the adoption of new technologies, and the establishment of effective institutional mechanisms will be important to track progress on RoO implementation and ensure high preference-utilization rates under the AfCFTA. These efforts shall be complemented by targeted support to the least developed countries and to small and medium enterprises. Finally, we recommend a set of actions to ensure the impartial, transparent, predictable, consistent, and cost-effective implementation of the AfCFTA RoOs.

Suggested Citation

  • Komi Tsowou & Junior Davis, 2021. "Reaping the AfCFTA Potential Through Well-Functioning Rules of Origin," Journal of African Trade, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 88-102, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jouafr:v:8:y:2021:i:2:d:10.2991_jat.k.210428.001
    DOI: 10.2991/jat.k.210428.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.2991/jat.k.210428.001
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2991/jat.k.210428.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paola Conconi & Manuel García-Santana & Laura Puccio & Roberto Venturini, 2018. "From Final Goods to Inputs: The Protectionist Effect of Rules of Origin," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(8), pages 2335-2365, August.
    2. Keck, Alexander & Lendle, Andreas, 2012. "New evidence on preference utilization," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2012-12, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    3. Cadot, Olivier & Estevadeordal, Antoni & Suwa-Eisenmann, Akiko & Verdier, Thierry (ed.), 2006. "The Origin of Goods: Rules of Origin in Regional Trade Agreements," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199290482.
    4. Jaime de Melo & Alberto Portugal-Perez, 2014. "Preferential Market Access Design: Evidence and Lessons from African Apparel Exports to the United States and the European Union," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 74-98.
    5. Mizuno, Tomomichi & Takauchi, Kazuhiro, 2013. "Rules of origin and uncertain cost of compliance," MPRA Paper 44431, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Sangkyom Kim & Innwon Park & Soonchan Park, 2013. "Trade-creating regime-wide rules of origin: a quantitative analysis," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(11), pages 1056-1061, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hippolyte Fofack & Andrew Mold, 2021. "The AfCFTA and African Trade—An Introduction to the Special Issue," Journal of African Trade, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 1-11, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jaime DE MELO & Ben SHEPHERD, 2018. "The Economics of Non-Tariff Measures: A Primer," Working Papers P212, FERDI.
    2. Krishna, Kala & Salamanca, Carlos & Suzuki, Yuta & Volpe Martincus, Christian, 2025. "Learning to use trade agreements," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    3. Felipe Benguria, 2022. "Do US exporters take advantage of free trade agreements? Evidence from the US‐Colombia free trade agreement," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1148-1179, September.
    4. Kazunobu Hayakawa & Naoto Jinji & Nuttawut Laksanapanyakul & Toshiyuki Matsuura & Taiyo Yoshimi, 2023. "Quantifying the costs of utilising regional trade agreements," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(12), pages 3542-3570, December.
    5. Julien Gourdon & Dzmitry Kniahin & Jaime Melo & Mondher Mimouni, 2021. "Rules of Origin across African Regional Trading Agreements: A Landscape with Measures to Address Challenges at Harmonization," Journal of African Trade, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 96-108, December.
    6. Felbermayr, Gabriel & Teti, Feodora & Yalcin, Erdal, 2019. "Rules of origin and the profitability of trade deflection," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    7. Kiyoyasu Tanaka, 2021. "The European Union's reform in rules of origin and international trade: Evidence from Cambodia," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(10), pages 3025-3050, October.
    8. Dzmitry Kniahin & Jaime de Melo, 2022. "A Primer on Rules of Origin as Non-Tariff Barriers," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-23, June.
    9. Kazunobu Hayakawa, 2023. "Multiple preference regimes and rules of origin," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 159(3), pages 673-696, August.
    10. Kuo‐I Chang & Kazunobu Hayakawa & Nuttawut Laksanapanyakul & Dionisius Narjoko & Ju Hyun Pyun & Francis Quimba, 2022. "Determinants of regional trade agreement utilisation: Evidence from multiple import countries in Asia," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(6), pages 1713-1736, June.
    11. Ornelas, Emanuel & Turner, John L., 2024. "The costs and benefits of rules of origin in modern free trade agreements," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    12. Celik, Levent & Karabay, Bilgehan & McLaren, John, 2020. "Fast-track authority: A hold-up interpretation," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    13. Naoto JINJI & Kazunobu HAYAKAWA & Nuttawut LAKSANAPANYAKUL & Toshiyuki MATSUURA & Taiyo YOSHIMI, 2020. "A New Approach for Quantifying the Costs of Utilizing Regional Trade Agreements," Discussion papers e-19-010, Graduate School of Economics , Kyoto University.
    14. Tobias Sytsma, 2021. "Rules of origin and trade preference utilization among least developed countries," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(4), pages 701-718, October.
    15. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2022. "Effect of the utilization of non-reciprocal trade preferences offered by the QUAD countries on beneficiary countries' economic complexity," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    16. Mattia Di Ubaldo & Michael Gasiorek & Barry Reilly & Aldo Sandoval-Hernandez, 2025. "Trade and the intensity of product regulation," Working Paper Series 0325, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    17. Alessandro Barattieri & Matteo Cacciatore, 2023. "Self-Harming Trade Policy? Protectionism and Production Networks," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 97-128, April.
    18. Jaume Sempere, 2022. "On potential Pareto gains from free trade areas formation," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(6), pages 1502-1518, December.
    19. Prema-chandra Athukorala & Raveen Ekanayake, 2014. "Repositioning in the Global Apparel Value Chain in the Post-MFA Era: Strategic Issues and Evidence from Sri Lanka," Departmental Working Papers 2014-17, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    20. Kazunobu Hayakawa & Hiroshi Mukunoki, 2023. "The magnification effect in global value chains," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 141-157, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jouafr:v:8:y:2021:i:2:d:10.2991_jat.k.210428.001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.atlantis-press.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.