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Africa’s three largest regional economic communities agreed in October to work toward establishing a free trade area that would span the length of the continent. The ultimate aim is to convert the arrangement into a single customs union.
The decision was made at summit of heads of state representing the members of the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). When realised, the free tade area and customs union envisaged by the leaders would stretch from South Africa to Egypt and from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Kenya, encompassing a population of over 527 million and a combined GDP of US$624 billion.
Work on the matter will begin immediately. The leaders have given a special taskforce six months to develop a roadmap for the creation of the free trade area and the merger of the regional economic communities. A memorandum of understanding on the establishment of the FTA is to be developed within six months, and council of ministers will be convened within 12 months to determine the timeframe for the establishment of a single regional economic community. In addition, the leaders gave the three regional communities a year to co-ordinate their energy and transport plans.
Among reasons for creating the new free trade area, the leaders cited problems arising from the fact that most countries belong to more than one of the three economic blocs, which are at different stages of integration themselves. On average, every African nation belongs to about four of the continent’s 30 regional trade arrangements,
Twenty-six African nations will be included in the merged COMESA/EAC/SADC free trade zone: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, the Comoros, the DRC, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The new free area is seen as an important stepping stone towards an all-encompassing African Economic Community, which was first envisaged in the Treaty of Abuja in 1991. It is hoped that the merger of the three main trade groupings will boost inter-Africa trade by creating larger markets and more opportunities for economies of scale, as well as strengthen Africa’s voice in international negotiations, such as the WTO’s Doha Round and the economic partnership agreements that most countries on the continent are currently negotiating with European Union (see related article on page 19).
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