Task 2. Read the text “African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) – How will it benefit us in practice?” once more and answer the following questions by one of the options:
African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA)How will it benefit us in practice?In March 2018 at a historic meeting of the African Union in Kigali Rhonda member states agreed to create an African Continental free-trade area. Subsequently 52 of 55 African Union member states signed up to the agreement representing a remarkable degree of consensus across the continent.But what does this Agreement mean in practice and how will it affect African countries?The first thing to point out is that it isn’t simply a free trade agreement, it’s actually much more than that. It’s about establishing a unified continental market including the free movement of labor and investments.Let’s focus on three major benefits of the continent of free trade area. Africa is a big continent but in economic terms individual countries are still very small. Take Rwanda for instance. It’s one of the fastest-growing economies in the world but in terms of size it ranks number 143rd out of 193 economies in the world. This matters because small economies often struggle to attract the much-needed investment. Collectively the story is very different. The African continents – all 54 economies together have a collective GDP of 2.5 trillion US dollars. That makes it the eighth largest economy in the world just behind India. And with 1.2 billion potential customers it makes the continent much more attractive to investments both from within and from outside the continent. This will encourage businesspeople to make the investments necessary to sustain economic growth and create the job opportunities the continent badly needs.The second argument in favour of the Continental free-trade area is that it includes protocol on the free movement of people. This matters because at present travelling between African countries for Africans currently can be very challenging. Visas, expensive air tickets, custom clearances and border controls make it difficult to travel for pleasure and even more difficult to do business across borders.The third powerful argument in favour of the continent of free trade area is that it will increase trade between African countries. Less than one-fifth of all exports are currently from one African country to another. One of the main reasons is the high level of trade taxes. The Continental free trade area agreement is proposing to remove trade taxes on at least 90 percent of all trade between African countries. That will provide a big incentive to regional trade.
5. Does African continent become much more attractive to investments from within or from outside the continent?