Mauritius Becomes Full Member of AfCFTA (Map)

Update: As far as can be determined, this map is still accurate as of August 2020, with no news on any deposits of ratification instruments since Mauritius. Angola, Cameroon, and Morocco are all reported to have ratified the AfCFTA treaty, but apparently haven't yet completed their membership by registering with African Union headquarters (the AU's official "status list" for the treaty hasn't been updated since October 2019, and recent reports still put the number of deposits at 28). 

In related news, the next stage of the trade area's implementation has been delayed to January 2021, but the organization's headquarters were inaugurated on August 17, 2020 in Accra, Ghana.

Map by Evan Centanni, from blank map by Eric Gaba. License: CC BY-SA

Mauritius Ratifies AfCFTA Treaty

Two months ago, we reported on this year's creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), an African Union (AU) project to increase trade within Africa. Almost all of Africa's countries have signed on to the AfCFTA, but they only become full members once they've ratified its founding treaty (adopted it into their national laws) and formally registered their ratification with the AU.

This month Mauritius became the first new country to do that since the trade area started operations in July. There wasn't much fanfare for the small island country, located off Africa's southeastern coast - PolGeoNow couldn't find any news articles at all about its new membership. It was only through the AU's official treaty status document that we confirmed Mauritius's diplomats deposited its articles of ratification two weeks ago, on October 7, 2019. The Mauritian government completed the ratification itself a week earlier, on September 30.

Country Short Name:   • Mauritius (English) • Maurice (French) • Moris (Morisyen) Full Official Name:   • Republic of Mauritius (English) • République de Maurice (French) • Ripiblik Moris (Morisyen) Capital: Port Louis

The addition of Mauritius brings the AfCFTA up to 28 full member countries. Previously, the last country to join was Gabon on July 7, the same day the trade area officially entered its "operational phase". Another 26 AU member countries have signed the AfCFTA treaty, but haven't yet ratified it.

For more on what the AfCFTA is, what it's doing now, and which countries were included and excluded, check out our "What is the AfCFTA?" article from August.

See Also: What is the African Union, and which countries are in it?

Stay tuned to PolGeoNow for more AfCFTA ratification updates! You can check for updated versions this map by viewing all AfCFTA articles on PolGeoNow.

Graphic of the Mauritian flag is in the public domain (source).