The AfCFTA treaty recognizes the role of the Regional Economic Communities (“RECs”) to the success of the free trade project by codifying as one of its guiding principles the notion that the RECs’ Free Trade Areas (“FTAs”) shall be “the building blocs for the AfCFTA.”
The expectation is that the RECs will provide the head start and the initial experiment of what to expect in the larger continental free trade area. However, in view of the varied features and objectives of the existing RECs amongst other limiting factors, navigating the complex relationship between the RECs on one hand and the AfCFTA on the other, as well as the issue of overlapping membership will provide an acid test which if not properly handled will act as a stumbling block to the AfCFTA.
The African Union currently recognizes the following RECs (listed in no particular order):
EAC – East African Community
ECOWAS – Economic Community of West African States.
COMESA – Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.
AMU – Arab Maghreb Union
CEN-SAD – Community of Sahel-Saharan States
ECCAS – Economic Community of Central African States
SADC – Southern African Development Community
IGAD – Intergovernmental Authority for Development
These 8 RECs with a combined GDP of over $2.6 Trillion are the only regional economic blocs codified in article 1 of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) treaty.
The RECs have continued to play a very essential role right from the formation of the AfCFTA. For instance, the ECOWAS apart from hosting the AfCFTA Secretariat, provided both technical and institutional resources at the negotiation stage of the agreement. The ECOWAS common external tariff (CET) was the basis for ECOWAS member States tariff negotiations under the AfCFTA.
IGAD has also moved away from its original focus on drought and environmental issue to trade and regional cooperation and this came to light during the AfCFTA negotiation. At the SADC Council Meeting held last year, the regional body urged the member States that have not yet signed and ratified the AfCFTA to do so to allow for the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement. At the said meeting, member states were also encouraged to ratify the tripartite Free Trade Agreement involving COMESA, EAC and SADC. Similar calls have also been issued by other RECs aimed at galvanizing their members not only to ratify the AfCFTA treaty but to take further steps to domesticate it.
Experts have argued that a successful implementation of the AfCFTA depends largely on smooth interface with the pre-existing RECs. Speaking at the 7th COMESA Annual Research Forum, the Director, Capacity Building Development at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Dr. Stephen Karingi reiterated the above point and further observed that the AfCFTA has provided some level of flexibility on the co-existence of a web of connected, yet distinct trade regimes, which would be consolidated at some later stage.
