Launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) within Agenda 2063: an assessment of the‘Actorness’ of the African Union (AU) in International Relations (IR)

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue I, January 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) within Agenda 2063: an assessment of the‘Actorness’ of the African Union (AU) in International Relations (IR)

Joseph Kwabena Manboah-Rockson, Ph.D.
Department of Research, Innovation and Programs Development (ORID), Catholic University of Business & Technology (CIBT), Institute Drive, Adabraka, Accra, Ghana.

Abstract
This paper seeks to examine the dynamics of decision making within the African Union Commission(AUC) that has led to the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) in July 2019 using Agenda 2063 as the basis. The AU’s Agenda 2063 is both an economic and social model that supports market capitalism and one that incorporates Pan-Africanism as a guiding set of values, and how this ideology defines and reinforces regional integration. Scholarly studies have long accepted the extent to which, an entity like the European Union (EU) is capable of becoming a coherent actor in the global governance complex; which indeed raises important questions about what constitutes ‘actorness’ in contemporary international relations. Can a continental driver of integration such the African Union (AU) emerge as a significant actor in global politics? If so, how can we conceptualize actorness? This paper is attempting a new way at capturing the AU’s internal and external behavior – one that takes into account, not only the AU’s own characteristics – but the kinds of political, economic and social transactions it undertakes, and the feedback processes engendered pertaining to actorness.

Key-words: Regional Integration, ‘Actorness’, Decision-making, International Relations (IR), Pan-Africanism, Agenda 2063, African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

1. Introduction

In May of 2019, the leaders of forty-four (44) African nations signed on to a framework agreement to open up their borders to commerce and increased trade on the continent. The establishment by the African Union Commission (AUC), is an attempt to bring together over a billion people with a cumulative transactional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $3 trillion in United States dollars (WTO, 2019). The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) would be the largest free trade agreement since the founding of the World Trade Organization (WTO), about thirty-five years ago (WTO, 2019). Born out of Agenda 2063, the CFTA agreement is an important stepping stone toward a continental customs union, pan-continental socio-economic integration, and a more economically self-sufficient Africa. Unquestionably, the AfCFTA has immense potential to facilitate a virtuous economic growth cycle for the continent, facilitate increased intra-and extra-regional trade and bring about job and GDP growth and a more prosperous and self-sufficient economic future for the people of Africa (GIZ 2015). The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) avers that it could double Africa’s trade figures if tariff rates and non-tariff barriers are reduced, and will also generate the much needed employment for Africa’s bulging youth population, and attract new investors to such a single African market (UNECA, 2019). The operational phase of the AfCFTA was launched during the 12th extraordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union in Niamey, Niger on 7 July

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