Regarding “the commercial environment,” companies largely report being neutral in their perception of investment, competition, and intellectual property rights policies embedded in the AfCFTA. At the same time, rules of origin must lead to a transformation process that generates value through intellectual property gains and/or new jobs. The rules of origin need to be simple, practical, and business-friendly to enable African businesses to optimize the trade gains expected from the AfCFTA. Businesses often face difficulties in conforming to these rules, and their complexity can be particularly onerous for informal traders.
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Importantly, the surveyed firms most often named compliance with an FTA’s rules of origin requirements, which determine how exported goods shipped to a country may qualify for free or preferential import tariffs, to be the most binding constraint to trading.
Firm awareness and use of African free trade agreements (FTAs) and the AfCFTA.The ease of trading goods across Africa.The ACBI captures three dimensions relevant to the understanding of the AfCFTA and related negotiations: The ACBI aims to ensure that the African Continental Free Trade Area delivers on its projected sustainable development promises, especially for women-owned and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). It aims to inform African policymakers on the trade barriers and guide AfCFTA national strategies.
It enables relevant policymakers to identify bottlenecks in intra-African trade at a country level, which informs the barriers impeding effective AfCFTA implementation from the perspective of the private sector. The ACBI is a new AfCFTA-focused, ease-of-doing business index and is based on a robust theoretical framework and data collection process.