Examining the Role of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in Advancing Labour Standards

• Citation: (2025) 37 SA Merc LJ 21
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/SAMLJ/v37/i1a2
• Published date: 15 October 2025
• Pages: 21-47
• Author: Makore, S.T.M.
• Date: 15 October 2025

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EXAMINING THE ROLE OF THE AFRICAN

CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

IN ADVANCING LABOUR STANDARDS

SHELTON T MOTA MAKORE*

Senior Law Lecturer, Department of Mercantile Law,

University of the Free State

Abstract

The extension of labour standards in contemporary free trade

agreements has become an indispensable instrument that can

potentially contribute towards the protection of labour standards, the

promotion of safe and secure working environments, and the ending of

modern slavery, child labour, and human trafficking. Notwithstanding

their importance, labour standards are conspicuously absent from the

explicit objectives and scope of the African Continental Free Trade

Area Agreement (AfCFTA). This is despite that the Protocol on

Investment to the AfCFTA includes an abstract state-centric obligation

concerning labour standards and prohibits weakening such standards

to attract investment. These obligations require investors to comply

with certain labour standards and exempt regulatory action to protect

labour rights from the ambit of provisions regarding indirect

expropriation. This article argues that to further consolidate labour

standards and protect workers’ rights in the AfCFTA regime, there is a

need to adopt accompanying specific labour standards-related

provisions, including a specialised trade-labour protocol and other

measures, which should be implemented alongside the continental free

trade agreement.

Keywords: labour standards; sustainable development; social justice;

egalitarianism.

I INTRODUCTION

The need to advance labour standards as one of the objectives of

international trade regulation has become a compelling thematic focus

discussed in various international platforms such as the United Nations

(UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the International

* LLB, LLM, LLD (UFH).

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Labour Organization (ILO).

1

Recently, the discussion on aligning trade

with fair labour standards has increasingly become a signif‌icant one with

the conclusion of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement

(AfCFTA), a continental-wide agreement entered into by African

countries to create a single African market through the elimination of

tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers.

2

The argument is that the conduct

of intra-African trade has wider ramif‌ications for the protection of

labour standards across the African Continent.

3

This explains why the

architects of the AfCFTA Protocol on Investment have included,

implicitly, state-centric obligations concerning labour standards which

prohibit the weakening of labour standards by contracting parties

through non-enforcement in an attempt to attract foreign direct

investments on the African continent.

4

This article argues that to

strengthen labour standards in the AfCFTA, there is a need to adopt

accompanying specif‌ic labour standards-related measures, which

should be implemented alongside the continental free trade agreement.

5

Such a development will enhance the protection of workers’ rights in

free trade agreements, the advancement of the decent work agenda and

fair labour practices in Africa.

6

1

Warikandwa & Osode, ‘Human rights, core labour standards and the search for a legal

basis for a trade-labour linkage in the multilateral trade regime of the World Trade

Organisation International Labour Organisation’ (2014) 18 Law, Democracy and

Development 240 at 243; International Labour Organization, ‘The benef‌its of International

Labour Standards’, available at https://www.ilo.org/international-labour-standards/benef‌its-

international-labour-standards, accessed on 28 July 2024; Chartes & Mercurio, ‘A call for an

agreement on trade-related aspects of labour: Why and how the WTO should play a role in

upholding core labour standards’ (2012) 37 North Carolina Journal of International Law and

Commercial Regulation 665 at 667.

2

Outside the province of international trade, arguments for the decolonisation of labour

laws with a bearing on trade-labour linkage are being made by prominent scholars such as

Warikandwa. Warikandwa, ‘Decolonisation and the constitutional right to fair labour

practices: A contemporary South African perspective’ (2016) 22 Fundamina 569 at 580;

Warikandwa, ‘Decolonising labour laws and repossessing subaltern epistemologies: A review

of South African and Namibian Mineworkers’ f‌ight for labour rights’ (2024) Obiter 15 at 18.

3

Anyanwu, ‘Does intra-African trade reduce youth unemployment in Africa?’, available at

https://www.afdb.org/f‌ileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/Working_Paper_

201_-_Does_Intra-African_Trade_Reduce, accessed on 23 July 2024.

4

Erasmus, ‘An investment protocol for the AfCFTA’, available at https://www.tralac.org/

blog/article/15152-an-investment-protocol-for-the-afcfta.html; Daniel Uribe, accessed on

24 July 2024; see African Union ‘The protocol on investment to the agreement establishing the

African Continental Free Trade Area: What’s in it and what’s next for the Continent?’,

available at https://www.iisd.org/itn/en/2023/07/01/the-protocol-on-investment-to-the-

agreement-establishing-the-african-co, accessed on 25 July 2024.

5

Nyagah, ‘Getting labour provisions in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement’,

available at https://tradeunionsinafcfta.org/getting-labour-provisions-into-the-afcfta-

agreement/, accessed on 25 July 2024.

6

MacLeod, ‘Can the African Continental Free Trade Area promote the implementation

of SDG 8? 6 Decent work and economic growth’, available at https://www.ilo.org/

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