African Grand Free Trade Area

African Grand Free Trade Area is a planned Cape-to-Cairo free trade zone that will encompass 26 countries, 525 million people and $1 trillion in output. If it comes to reality, it will be one of the largest free trade areas in the developing world.

The 26-nation free trade area encompassing countries from Egypt to South Africa and three existing free trade blocs will be a very important platform for countries to engage and invest. The 26 nations – Libya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, DRC, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland had met in later half of 2011 and decided to complete the negotiations in the next three years and have the free trade agreement (FTA) up and rolling.

African leaders declared that the Free Trade Area (FTA) would be in place in three years — an ambitious but not unreasonable goal given that two of the blocs, the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC), already have tariff- and quota-free trade. No substaintial progress has been made so far.