The Reality of African Trade Integration—Challenges of Implementation

In the course of their evolution on the stylized path of economic integration, African RECs face a number of implementation challenges, beginning with a range of typical domestication issues for trade agreements. A fundamental problem is that African regional trade arrangements (RTA) are all based on two GATT/WHO clauses which do not require full internal liberalization. The chapter analyses how RTA implementation on this basis has led to a general logic of exclusions and exemptions in Africa’s trade relations and traces how entrenched empirical practice meant to serve developmental purposes—protection of the weakest economic actors—often caters to vested interests. Inconsistency is aggravated by special features such as bilateral country-to-country agreements within and across RECs, REC overlaps, and the complicated architecture of customs unions. In view of these features, it is difficult to say where present-day African RECs basically stand in their evolution. Therefore, the chapter looks at key indicators in order to gauge trade integration statistically. It is determined that the degree of trade integration is still low by any measure. The continued and as yet under-researched importance of informal cross-border trade (ICBT) is discussed. All evidence considered, African RECs remain contested in theory and practice.