This is according to the African Export-Import Bank’s (Afreximbank) 2018 African Trade Report titled ‘Boosting Intra-African Trade: Implications of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement’. The report points out that the best option for African countries to gain economically is complete tariff removal on all trade and a reduction in NTBs. Only three SADC member states export most of their products in finished form. The three SADC countries are Lesotho, which leads with 67% of exports in manufactured goods, followed by Mauritius (53%) and South Africa (42%) in the export of finished goods. In 2014, the European Union accounted for 63% of total trade, North America (50%) and Asia (52%), while Intra-African trade only accounted for 15% of overall trade in the same year.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 25, 2019 12:22 UTC