On 9th September 2021, the Parliament of Tanzania has ratified the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), effectively joining a free market of 54 African countries with a combined population of 1.2 billion people and a combined GDP of more than USD 3.4 trillion.
This was announced by the Minister of Industry and Trade of Tanzania, Kitila Mkumbo, on his Twitter profile on the same day.
The AfCFTA was founded in 2018, with trade commencing on 1st January 2021. It was created by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement among 54 of the 55 African Union (AU) nations.
With Tanzania ratifying the agreement, 42 of the 55 AU members have now ratified the AfCFTA.
The free market seeks to increase intra-African trade by 52% by 2022 and requires members to remove tariffs from 90% of goods and to allow free access to goods and services across the continent.
