The Communist Party-controlled China Daily newspaper published an interesting article today written by Lewis Ndichu, a research and policy analyst at the Kenya-based think tank Africa Policy Institute, that proposes how China’s Belt and Road Initiative can be integrated into the new African Continental Free Trade Agreement.
Economically speaking, there’s a lot of synergy between these two initiatives. After all, China is building billions of dollars of transportation and manufacturing infrastructure that will be vital to the AfCTA’s success. The AfCFTA’s move towards efficient, tariff-free movement of goods across African borders will also make it easier to ship them out to China and other points along the BRI.