STATE SOVEREIGNTY AND TRADE LIBERALIZATION: WHITHER THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION AND THE AFRICAN CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AGREEMENT OPTIONS

Abstract

Sovereignty as a continuing ineluctable attribute of a state has come under critical reappraisal under contemporary International Law. This is moreso given the proliferation of international organisations whose existential raison d’tre straddle into areas that were once the traditional and exclusive preserve of states. This work will be limited to the exercise by a sovereign state of its powers within and external to its territory vis-à-vis the influence of international organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the impact the exponential spread of transnational commerce have brought to bear in the creeping re-definition of the pristine meaning of state sovereignty. Such developments have modified the authority of nation states to the extent that it is no longer plausible in contemporary times with the attendant wave of globalization (if it ever was) to suggest that states are sovereign in the sense of being free from external control. With the establishment of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and subsequently the World Trade Organization (WTO), trade liberalization amongst nation-states witnessed significant growth. The goal of trade liberation requires member states to maintain national measures and policies consistent with the fundamental principles of the WTO and other treaty based trading institutions. This work analyzes how the WTO multilateral trading system affects state sovereignty. These issues are considered in light of the options that are available to African countries within the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which is currently undergoing ratification when juxtapositioned with the sovereignty of African States. It also shows the challenges of the WTO and its impact on state sovereignty as well as the implementation challenges of the AfCFTA and its implications for African nations’ sovereignty.