The AfCFTA Secretariat has established a dispute settlement body, that will function as a full-court with the right mechanisms and structures in place to settle trade disputes.
The inaugural meeting of the dispute settlement body of the AfCFTA signals the readiness of this infrastructure to take up any disputes that may arise in the course of trading amongst the member States.
Only 21% of cases administered by ICSID involve African investors, however, this may change with the introduction of AfCFTA, and we may begin to see more disputes involving African investors and African states.
With the growing concern over the traditional ISDS system, it is highly unlikely that the AfCFTA will include an ISDS mechanism giving investors access to go to international arbitration under conventional international tribunals.
African states need to take a unified and proactive approach to investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), in order to make a system that is fairer to Africa and more consistent.
The African Union (AU) stressed the need to boost African countries’ capacity on both Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) and state-to-state dispute, as the African Continental Free Trade Area edges closer to entry into force.
Les pays africains envisagent la création d’une cour arbitrale africaine pour le règlement des litiges relatifs aux investissements. Cette solution parmi d’autres permettra d’assurer un meilleur équilibre entre la protection des investisseurs et la préservation des intérêts nationaux.