The Services Protocol to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement entered into force on 30 May 2019, along with the other parts of the consolidated text. However, the Protocol is incomplete, and it will be some time before any services sector commitments are made under the AfCFTA, and thus before any actual services trade can occur under this Agreement. Furthermore, it is not guaranteed that actual services sector liberalisation will be achieved. This is because countries typically only make commitments that bind existing practices when positive listing services commitments. The indications we saw at an African Union Services Signalling Conference were that this would be the approach.

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