Africa's economic integration: How to link trade and mobility policies

Last week, the 15th AfCFTA Council of Ministers met in Addis Ababa to address outstanding issues related to the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). While work continues to finalise AfCFTA negotiations and expand implementation beyond symbolic shipments – last week, there was a Kenyan shipment of goods to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia – attention to trade in services and the movement of people to accompany trade in goods is growing. This connection, crucial for the AfCFTA and the African Union (AU)’s free movement protocol (FMP), is high on the agenda of African Regional economic communities (RECs) and also for us at ECDPM. 

That was the focus of a recent meeting at ECDPM, where we hosted representatives from the RECs, the AU and professional service associations at our offices in Brussels. During their visit, they sought to draw insights from the EU’s experience of trade in services and movement of people, and share the challenges and successes they have faced at home. In our discussion, we explored whether Africa’s policies on trade and movement of people should be linked or pursued separately. Here, we summarise three takeaways.

1. A need to bridge the gap between the movement of people and goods

The AfCFTA and the FMP have been heralded as major milestones for African integration and form a core part of the AU’s key policy objectives, such as its Agenda 2063. However, while the AfCFTA has gained political traction and is making progress, the FMP has lagged behind on the movement of people, especially business people and workers. The reason for that is a complex picture of domestic and regional interests and politics.

Political concerns, particularly around national sovereignty and security, have created a gap between aspirations on the movement of people on paper and the reality on the ground. While many African leaders express enthusiasm about economic integration through the AfCFTA, the idea of the movement of people evokes concerns about uncontrolled flows of migration, social cohesion and security, making it politically sensitive. This partly relates to the misnomer of ‘free’ movement of people, which, like ‘free’ movement of goods, is subject to national rules, regulations and safeguards.

Yet apparently, goods are less politically sensitive, which has allowed the AfCFTA agenda to advance. The challenge now lies in convincing political leaders that full economic integration, as envisaged in Agenda 2063, cannot be achieved without addressing the movement of persons. That implies identifying pragmatic steps to move the discussions on the free movement protocol forward.

2. The need to explore the opportunities and risks of linking FMP, services and trade

A key question in our discussions was whether to pursue the free movement of people and trade in services under the AfCFTA protocol together or separately.

For some, the AfCFTA’s trade in services (TiS) protocol could serve as a stepping stone for the FMP by focusing on movement in the five priority sectors: financial, communication, transport, tourism and business services. Even minor progress in facilitating the movement of specific categories of workers and business persons under the TiS protocol could help create momentum to push forward on the broader FMP. The TiS could also help ‘lock in’ commitments that contribute towards implementing the FMP. The protocol could serve as a pilot for FMP and ease the way for more politically challenging initiatives. To truly open up services, agreements in TiS must genuinely liberalise service provisions in the priority sectors, ensuring that they are no more restrictive than what is contained in regional commitments or with the WTO. 

However, others argue that linking the two might simply bring the same political resistance encountered with the FMP to the movement of service providers, given the sensitive nature of people’s movement. They suggest that it is better to focus on trade in services.

3. Look at bottom-up solutions as a way forward

Another pragmatic way forward would be to build on the experiences of African RECs, where these already point toward practical solutions. In some cases, national and regional policies are evolving in ways that help simplify and facilitate the movement of goods and people. 

For example, in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region, bilateral agreements between countries have facilitated the movement of transporters and business persons. These agreements demonstrate a willingness to explore mobility solutions at a bilateral level that could be built upon. 

In East Africa, some countries allow passport-free temporary movement with steps towards rolling out regional passports to further facilitate movement. Border management committees – at Kenyan borders, for example – also provide an inclusive model to promote trade, but also some limited movement of persons in and around borderland zones. 

While not perfect, these examples show that even without broad continental agreements, people are moving, and countries are finding ways to manage and facilitate this movement. This bottom-up approach, where localised initiatives drive integration, may be more adaptable to the realities on the ground and could also help bring informality into policy discussions. Various experiments with simplified trade regimes seek to simplify procedures for small-scale traders. These regimes are important, especially for women, who account for about 70% of informal cross-border traders.

Sector-specific initiatives, where pressure from professional organisations at the regional level has driven the integration of professional services and contributed to the movement of persons, are also promising. For example, in the East African Community (EAC), the private sector drove the mutual recognition of professional qualifications. Similar examples exist in West Africa. The West African Health Organisation, for instance, introduced harmonisation measures to facilitate the movement of medical professionals.

Ways forward

To move forward, political sensitivities around the movement of people cannot be ignored. But policymakers can make a stronger case for the interdependency of the movement of goods, services and people. One way to do this is by estimating the costs of not having such movements in place. What is the economic impact of the lack of mobility on trade, employment and regional development?

We can also learn from successful examples by analysing what drives some of the sectoral and local examples of progress and how political resistance has been overcome in other cases. Whether through technical solutions like implementing the AfCFTA TiS protocol or sector-specific agreements that show the value of mobility, there are ways to make progress, even in a politically challenging environment.

While the full realisation of the free movement protocol may remain distant, Africa is not starting from scratch. There are plenty of lessons to be drawn from both within the continent and beyond. By leveraging these experiences and linking them with broader goals like the AfCFTA, African policymakers can take small but important steps toward building trust and creating a more integrated continent. While the AfCFTA Council of Ministers discusses trade in services offers, it would be important for them to keep in mind the potential to more broadly support the movement of people. 

The views are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ECDPM.