Addressing the Policy Disconnect of Services Trade: What a Development-Friendly Services Liberalization under the AfCFTA Should Consider

Laura Páez

Chapter Chapter 4 in The African Continental Free Trade Area, 2024, pp 93-130 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter undertakes an assessment of services trade policy assessment in Africa in the light of ongoing liberalization of services trade in the AfCFTA and RECs FTAs. First, it couches concepts of services, services trade and services trade policy prior to discussing the evolution of services trade policy in the African continent and makes a case for its importance in Africa’s development. The chapter then looks at the importance, trends, evidence and opportunities of services trade policy in Africa and proposes a framework for mapping policy, highlighting the various levels where policy disconnects may exist at the various policy levels in Africa. The chapter also explores how regional approaches could help bridge these disconnects in the current services policy landscape at the subregional and pan-African levels. It then proposes elements that need to be prioritized in services negotiations and implementation of the AfCFTA and other existing RECs with FTAs containing a services chapter, to ensure greater policy consistency and coherence so that the developmental gains of services trade which may be expected from regional integration may be realized.

Keywords: Africa; Services trade; Trade liberalization; Trade policy; Regional trade agreements; Regional integration; Economic development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-66605-6_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031666056

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-66605-6_4

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().