The African Mining Vision also argues for government recognition of artisanal and small-scale mining through policy and regulation and formalization of the sector. In most countries, artisanal miners are considered criminals, and there have been very few, if any, efforts to recognize and formalize their activities. The question of how minerals produced by artisanal and small-scale miners can become part of the mining value chain is also important to the ACFTA.
The tools of the ACFTA include rules of origin, an online negotiation forum, tracking and removing tariff and non-tariff barriers, a digital payment system, and the African Trade Observatory, a platform for policymakers and the private sector to develop data-driven and evidence-based policies and solutions.
Africa has never lacked for economic and policy documents. The landscape of African trade and investment policy is littered with failed grand plans and ambitious political aspirations that never succeeded in establishing much-needed trade.
The Organization of African Unity, which became the African Union (AU) in 2002, was founded in 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with a huge emphasis on economic cooperation. It was said that Africa should not depend on aid from the global North, but develop through trade and investment. Hence the idea of developmental states. Despite this, little has changed in practice.
The FTAA recognizes existing trade agreements, allowing them to complement the ACFTA rather than compete with it. These include the African Growth and Opportunity Act, economic partnership agreements, and agreements with the WTO. However, the current elements of trade policy have failed to provide the impetus needed to kick-start Africa’s industrialization and economic development.
Moreover, the economic policies sponsored by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have not led to sustained growth, and structural adjustment programs have produced the worst results. Trade liberalization led to the collapse of most domestic industries, as their products could not compete with those imported from other countries. The privatization of state-owned enterprises made public sector goods and services too expensive for the continent’s poorest people.
It remains to be seen whether the ACFTA can transform the continent’s economies away from their dependence on commodity exports. According to UNCTAD, this dependence makes African economies vulnerable to price fluctuations in international markets. For example, low international oil prices have adversely affected Nigeria’s economy, and low spot prices for uranium led to the mothballing of the Langer Heinrich uranium mine in Namibia, accompanied by the loss of hundreds of jobs.