Assessing Ghana's participation under the African continental free trade agreement : a journey from the past and lessons for the future

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) entered into force on the 30th of May 2019, with trading commencing on the 1st of January 2021, thus creating the largest free trade area in the world in terms of participating countries. It seeks to create a single market for goods in Africa for Africa with an agreement adopted in line with the Pan-African vision of promoting a prosperous Africa and stimulating economic development in Africa. This thesis focuses on free trade, a background of free trade as an economic policy rooted in the Global North. The popularity and results of free trade's economic development in developed countries led to developing countries wanting similar benefits. However, developing African countries have struggled to implement free trade policies over the years, ranging from regional trade agreements to regional economic communities (RECs), with the implementation challenges significantly attributed to trade barriers, infrastructure, and lack of political will. This thesis assesses Ghana’s participation in the AfCFTA by analysing its membership of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) since its launch in 1975 and probes whether the country has achieved the intended benefits it sought to achieve by its participation with the ECOWAS, and whether these benefits or otherwise may be replicated in the AfCFTA. This thesis employs the doctrinal method of legal research in analysing various theories of the free trade policy, the ECOWAS Revised Treaty, the AfCFTA Protocol on Trade in Goods, as well as specific provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements. This thesis also suggests addressing the problems identified under Ghana’s ECOWAS membership, that a solution to these problems is the key to ensuring that it achieves its aims in its membership of the AfCFTA. In conclusion, the thesis suggests that Ghana must improve its ability to remove all trade barriers, especially those faced by the ECOWAS, invest in its regional infrastructure, and reinforce its transparency obligations to the WTO to achieve its objectives in participating in the AfCFTA.