Zim to join AfCFTA’s guided trade initiative

Zimbabwe is expected to be among the second batch of countries to kickstart meaningful intra-Africa trade in terms of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)’s Guided Trade Initiative (GTI), which was successfully piloted by seven AfCFTA member countries since October last year.

Trading under the AfCFTA preferential regime, to which Zimbabwe is a signatory and was officially launched in January 2021, became a reality on October 7 last year, with the introduction of the AfCFTA secretariat–driven Guided Trade Initiative (GTI).

Generally, the Guided Trade Initiative seeks to kickstart the implementation of the AfCFTA trade protocols and drive meaningful trade among member countries, which hitherto was constrained by a myriad of unharmonised and costly trade rules.

The AfCFTA is the world’s largest free trade area bringing together 55 countries of the African Union (AU) and eight (8) Regional Economic Communities (RECs). The overall mandate of the AfCFTA is to create a single continental market with a population of about 1,3 billion people and a combined GDP of approximately US$3,4 trillion.

As part of its mandate, the AfCFTA seeks to eliminate trade barriers and boost intra-Africa trade. In particular, it is to advance trade in value-added production across all service sectors of the African Economy.

AfCFTA secretary general, Wamkele Mene, told a Zimbabwe-Ghana Business Forum this week that, without a doubt, the Guided Trade Initiative had been a key development at the continental level and had injected some vitality into the implementation of the AfCFTA.

The Guided Trade Initiative was born after the 7th Meeting of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers responsible for Trade, on October 10, 2021, who adopted the Ministerial Directive on the Application of Provisional Schedules of Tariffs Concessions.

The Ministerial directive provided a legal basis for the countries that had submitted their tariff schedules in accordance with the agreed modalities to trade preferentially amongst themselves within the framework of the AfCFTA.

The Ministerial directive was adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in February 2022.

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