Entry into Force of African Continental Free Trade Agreement

Mauritania is one of the first African countries to ratify the Agreement for the Establishment and Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which enters into force from today, Friday 1 January 2021. To date, 34 African countries out of 55 African Union member countries have ratified the agreement. Under this agreement, a market of 1.2 billion consumers will be created, forming the largest free zone in the world, which will help African economies recover more quickly from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to an unprecedented recession, which had serious repercussions on the economies of the continent. Mauritania's accession is part of the national efforts aimed at ensuring the effective implementation of the agreement from which great benefits for the Mauritanian economy are expected. In the framework of the national strategy to enter the African free trade area, Mauritania has signed and ratified a series of other free trade agreements. The new African common market, the agreement of which entered into force today, is one of the most important and vast spaces of free trade, which will make it possible to increase the competitive capacity of the national economy, in view of our country’s geographical position.