Introduction

• Author: Cornelius Dube
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X211045442
• Published date: 01 December 2021
• Date: 01 December 2021

Symposium: Competition Policy and Law within the Context of the Continental Integration:

What Are the Sticking Issues for African Countries?

Introduction

Cornelius Dube*

Africa is now characterized by a strong momentum away from regional integration, with the focus

having shifted toward a merger of the regional cooperation agreements to form broader initiatives as

well as integration of the whole continent. On the one hand, there is the Tripartite Free Trade Area

(TFTA), which is a merger of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the

East African Community (EAC), and the Southern Africa Development Community. Twenty-two of

the 27 countries had signed the TFTA Agreement by April 2020, even though only eight countries

1

had

ratified it, leaving only six countries for it to enter into force.

2

Among other reasons, the TFTA is

intended to serve as a single market characterized by free movement of goods as well as services so as

to promote intraregional trade to promote economic and social development of the region.

3

The TFTA

agreement also specifies that the cooperation that will guide partners has to be based not only on the

principles of equality but also of fair competition. In that respect, the need for member countries

negotiate competition policy protocols was noted. This requirement for negotiating competition policy

protocols by member countries generally presupposes that there is some capacity among the members

to understand and enforce competition policy, which might not necessarily be correct as there are still

some countries without active competition regimes.

Despite the TFTA, strides have also been made toward the African Continental Free Trade Area

(AfCFTA), for which the TFTA is also expected to serve as an input. The AfCFTA achieved the

necessary threshold for continental implementation in May 2019 following the signing of the agree-

ment in February 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda. The agreement entered into force on May 30, 2019, for the

24 countries that had ratified it by that date. The operational phase of the AfCFTA was launched during

the 12th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) on the agreement in

Niamey, Niger on July 7, 2019, and trading commenced on January 1, 2021. Since the signing of the

Agreement in Kigali, 36 AU member states had ratified the agreement and deposited their instruments

with the African Union Commission by April 21, 2021. The AfCFTA is aimed at creating a single

market for both goods and services, which would deepen the continent’s economic integration, while

*Zimbabwe Economic Policy Analysis and Research Unit, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Corresponding Author:

Cornelius Dube, Zimbabwe Economic Policy Analysis and Research Unit, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Email: cornydee@gmail.com

1. Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Botswana and Namibia.

2. A news item from Bilaterals.org of April 23, 2020, entitled “SADC takes over Tripartite ec onomic group leadership.”

Available: https://www.bilaterals.org/?sadc-takes-over-tripartite Accessed 14 June 2020.

3. Article 4 of the Tripartite Free Trade Area Agreement.

The Antitrust Bulletin

2021, Vol. 66(4) 525–527

ªThe Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0003603X211045442

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