This paper provides a comprehensive and cohesive analysis of the likely effects of a Continental
Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) in six African countries. Our analysis considers
four incremental liberalisation scenarios. The first scenario consist in the elimination of
tariffs for agricultural goods. In the second scenario we add the elimination of tariffs on
manufactured goods. The third scenario adds a fifty percent reduction in NTMs. Our last
scenario considers also a thirty percent reduction in transaction costs associated with time.
This last scenario helps to illustrate the important role complementary policies may play in
the integration process. We find that the trade, growth and welfare gains for each African
country as a consequence of the implementation of a CFTA would depend on the modalities
of trade liberalisation. We also find that the CFTA would lead to asymmetric changes in
trade patterns among African countries and within countries across sectors. Finally, we find
that the short-run impacts of CFTA are generally very small while the long-run impacts are
instead positive. However, there is heterogeneity in the welfare effects in a given country
and across countries.