Comparative Study Of Dispute Settlement Mechanism Of African Continent Free Trade Agreement(AfCFTA)

The African Continental Free Trade Area(AfCFTA)was officially founded in 2019 aiming to establish a single unit market and a continental customs union for goods and services,therefore increasing intra-African trades and improving coordinated development from regional level to continental level.The AfCFTA is consisted of another advance during the economic integration process.In order to effectively protect the interests of member states in economic activities,AfCFTA also attaches great importance to create a rules-oriented environment.Therefore,it also proposes to establish a dispute settlement mechanism in the agreement.Influenced by their economic level,cultural tradition and other factors,it's obvious that legal awareness of African countries is relatively weak.In addition,there is not enough practical experience in terms of utilization of DSM,which makes it inevitable for AfCFTA to learn from other mature dispute settlement mechanisms.At the same time,in order to adapt to the development situation and actual needs of its own region,the AfCFTA-DSM will also be sufficiently "localized".Therefore,the study of the AfCFTA dispute settlement mechanism not only pay attention to legal construction process of Africa,but also helps to provide reference for the normalization and legalization of Sino-African economic and trade cooperation.In this paper,the research on AfCFTA-DSM adopted comparative method and concerned framework.On the basis of selecting WTO-DSM as comparison object,the paper concluded the similarities and differences between two mechanisms and also analyzed the reasons after a comparison between the specific contents.The paper is divided into four parts.The first part introduces the dispute settlement mechanism,then turns to a description of the DSMs of AfCFTA and WTO.The second part is the comparison part,which combines the legal terms and legal traditions of the two mechanisms.The content of the comparison is first the jurisdiction then a detailed comparison of the dispute settlement procedures.The third part mainly analyzes the reasons for the similarities and differences in the design of the AfCFTA-DSM vis-a-vis WTO-DSM,which is based on the process of economic integration and political,economic,cultural backgrounds of African continent.The fourth part first examines the flaws of the AfCFTA-DSM and the obstacles that may be encountered in actual operation,then proposes suggestions for improving the dispute settlement mechanism.As a background,it also provides suggestions for Chinese investors,multinational companies and other entities to participate in future economic and trade activities.The AfCFTA-DSM has not yet been used by member countries,so its effectiveness rests to be tested.However,there is no doubt that the AfCFTA,by establishing a rules-based dispute settlement mechanism,has permitted African countries a more legalized system and laid the institutional foundation for economic integration.