African Economic Community

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The African Economic Community (AEC) is an organization of African Union states establishing grounds for mutual economic development among the majority of African states. [1] The stated goals of the organization include the creation of free trade areas, customs unions, a single market, a central bank, and a common currency (see African Monetary Union) thus establishing an economic and monetary union.

Contents

Goals

The AEC founded through the Abuja Treaty, signed in 1991 and entered into force in 1994 [2] is envisioned to be created in six stages:

  1. (completed in 1999) Creation of regional blocs in regions where such do not yet exist
  2. (completed in 2007) Strengthening of intra-REC integration and inter-REC harmonisation
  3. (completed in 2021) Establishing of a free trade area and customs union in each regional bloc
  4. (to be completed in 2023) Establishing of a continent-wide customs union (and thus also a free trade area)
  5. (to be completed in 2025) Establishing of a continent-wide African Common Market (ACM)
  6. (to be completed in 2028) Establishing of a continent-wide economic and monetary union (and thus also a currency union) and Parliament
  • End of all transition periods: 2034 at the latest

Stages progress

as of September 2007

 Regional blocs - pillars of the African Economic Community (AEC)
Activity CEN-SAD COMESA EAC ECCAS ECOWAS IGAD SADC UMA
CEMAC Common UEMOA WAMZ Common SACU Common
Free Trade Area stalledprogressing 1fully in forcefully in forceproposed for 2007 ?fully in forceproposedstalledfully in forceprogressing 2stalled
Customs Union stalledproposed for 2008fully in forcefully in forceproposed for 2011 ?fully in forceproposed for 2007stalledfully in forceproposed for 2010stalled

1 Members not yet participating: DR Congo (in talks to join), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Seychelles (in talks to join), Swaziland (on derogation until SACU gives permission for Swaziland to join the FTA), Uganda (to join very soon)
2 Members not yet participating: Angola, DR Congo, Seychelles

Overall progress

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  Members of the AEC's parent, the African Union
Activities
Regional bloc Free Trade Area Economic and monetary union Free Travel Political pact Defence pact
Customs Union Single Market Currency Union Visa-free Border-less
AECPartially In Forceproposed for 2023proposed for 2023proposed for 2028proposed for 2023proposed for 2023proposed for 2028proposed for 2028
CEN-SAD proposed for 2010
COMESA in force 1proposed for 2008 ?proposed for 2018
EAC in forcein forceproposed for 2015 proposed for 2024 proposed for 2018 [5]  ?proposed for 2023
ECCAS CEMAC in forcein force ?in force
Common proposed for 2007 ?proposed for 2011 ?proposedproposedproposed ? in force
ECOWAS UEMOA in forcein forceproposed [6] in force
WAMZ  ?proposed for 2012
Common proposed 2proposed for 2007proposed [7] proposedin force 1proposedproposed in force
IGAD
SADC SACU in forcein forcede facto in force 1 ?
Common [ permanent dead link ‍]proposed for 2008 3proposed for 2010proposed for 2015proposed for 2016
UMA

1 not all members participating yet
2 telecommunications, transport and energy - proposed
3 sensitive goods to be covered from 2012

African Economic Community
Pillar regional
blocs (REC)		Area
(km²)		PopulationGDP (PPP) ($US)Member
states
(millions)(per capita)
EAC 5,449,717343,328,958737,4202,1498
ECOWAS/CEDEAO 5,112,903349,154,0001,322,4523,78815
IGAD 5,233,604294,197,387225,0491,1977
AMU/UMA  46,046,441106,919,5261,299,17312,6285
ECCAS/CEEAC 6,667,421218,261,591175,9281,45111
SADC 9,882,959394,845,175737,3923,15215
COMESA 12,873,957406,102,471735,5991,81120
CEN-SAD  414,680,11129
Total AEC 29,910,442853,520,0102,053,7062,40654
Other regional
blocs		Area
(km²)		PopulationGDP (PPP) ($US)Member
states
(millions)(per capita)
WAMZ  11,602,991264,456,9101,551,5165,8676
SACU  12,693,41851,055,878541,43310,6055
CEMAC  23,020,14234,970,52985,1362,4356
UEMOA  13,505,37580,865,222101,6401,2578
UMA  2 45,782,14084,185,073491,2765,8365
GAFTA  3 45,876,9601,662,5966,3553,8225
AES   2,780,15971,374,000179,3473
During 2004. Sources: The World Factbook 2005, IMF WEO Database.
  Smallest value among the blocs compared.
  Largest value among the blocs compared.
1: Economic bloc inside a pillar REC.
2: Proposed for pillar REC, but objecting participation.
3: Non-African members of GAFTA are excluded from figures.
4: The area 446,550 km2 used for Morocco excludes all disputed territories, while 710,850 km2 would include the Moroccan-claimed and partially-controlled parts of Western Sahara (claimed as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic by the Polisario Front). Morocco also claims Ceuta and Melilla, making up about 22.8 km2 (8.8 sq mi) more claimed territory.
This box:

Pillars

Currently there are multiple regional blocs in Africa, also known as Regional Economic Communities (RECs), many of which have overlapping memberships. The RECs consist primarily of trade blocs and, in some cases, some political and military cooperation. Most of these RECs form the "pillars" of AEC, many of which also have an overlap in some of their member states. Due to this high proportion of overlap it is likely that some states with several memberships will eventually drop out of one or more RECs. Several of these pillars also contain subgroups with tighter customs and/or monetary unions of their own:

These pillars and their corresponding subgroups are as follows:

PillarsSubgroups
Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD)
Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
East African Community (EAC)
Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS/CEEAC) Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC)
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA)

West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ)

Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)
Southern African Development Community (SADC) Southern African Customs Union (SACU)
Common Monetary Area (CMA)
Arab Maghreb Union (UMA)

Pillar membership

  member states; year of joining
  member states; year of joining; cooperation in the framework of the bloc stalled
  candidate states; year of application
CEN-SAD
Founding states (1998):

Joined later:

COMESA
Founding states (1994):

Joined later:

Former members:
EAC
Founding states (2001):

Joined later:


ECOWAS
Founding states (1975):

Joined later:

Former members:
UEMOA-94: UEMOA state from 1994

UEMOA-97: UEMOA state from 1997
WAMZ-00: WAMZ state from 2000

WAMZ-10: WAMZ state from 2010
ECCAS
Founding states (1985):

Joined later:

CEMAC-99: CEMAC state from 1999
IGAD
Founding states (1986):

Joined later:


UMA 1
Founding states (1989):
SADC
Founding states (1980):

Joined later:

SACU-70: SACU state from 1970
SACU-90: SACU state from 1990

1 The UMA (Arab Maghreb Union) does not participate in the AEC so far, because of opposition by Morocco

Interlocking relationships

The image above contains clickable links Euler diagram showing the relationships among various multinational African entities v * t * e Supranational African Bodies-en.svgEconomic and Monetary Community of Central AfricaEconomic Community of West African StatesWest African Monetary Zone
The image above contains clickable links Interactive icon.svg
The image above contains clickable links
Euler diagram showing the relationships among various multinational African entities v • t • e

Venn diagrams illustrating interlocking relationship overlaps:

REC pillars of the African Economic Community. CEN-SAD COMESA EAC ECCAS ECOWAS IGAD SADC UMA RECs of the AEC.svg
REC pillars of the African Economic Community.
   CEN-SAD
   COMESA
   EAC
   ECCAS
   ECOWAS
   IGAD
   SADC
   UMA
Active REC pillars of the African Economic Community. COMESA EAC ECCAS ECOWAS SADC Active RECs of the AEC.svg
Active REC pillars of the African Economic Community.
   COMESA
   EAC
   ECCAS
   ECOWAS
   SADC

Other blocs

Other trade blocs in Africa not part of the African Economic Community. GAFTA CEPGL COI LGA MRU Other trade blocks in Africa.svg
Other trade blocs in Africa not part of the African Economic Community.
   GAFTA
   CEPGL
   COI
   LGA
   MRU

Other African regional blocs, not participating in the AEC framework (many of them predating AEC) are:

Their membership is as follows:

GAFTA 1 CEPGL COI LGA MRU
2005 membership:

Joined later:

1976 membership:1984 membership:1970 membership:1973 membership:

Joined later:

1 Only African GAFTA members are listed.
GAFTA and MRU are the only blocs not currently stalled.

African Free Trade Zone

The African Free Trade Zone (AFTZ) was announced on Wednesday October 22, 2008 by the heads of Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC).

In May 2012 the idea was extended to also include ECOWAS, ECCAS and AMU. [11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Staff writer (2024). "African Economic Community (AEC)". UIA Global Civil Society Database. uia.org. Brussels, Belgium: Union of International Associations. Yearbook of International Organizations Online. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  2. ↑ Staff writer (2024). "Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (Abuja treaty)". UIA Global Civil Society Database. uia.org. Brussels, Belgium: Union of International Associations. Yearbook of International Organizations Online. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  3. ↑ Kede, Shoshana (2 April 2019). "Africa free trade agreement gets last ratification from Gambia". AfricanBusinessMagazine.com . Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  4. ↑ "AfCFTA Agreement secures minimum threshold of 22 ratification as Sierra Leone and the Saharawi Republic deposit instruments". African Union. 29 April 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  5. ↑ Ligami, Christabel (2017-04-17). "East Africa e-passports to be issued in 2018". theeastafrican.co.ke. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  6. ↑ WT/COMTD/N/11 Archived 2009-03-25 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ WT/COMTD/N/21 Archived 2009-03-27 at the Wayback Machine
  8. 1 2 "SADC, COMESA and the EAC: Conflicting regional and trade agendas". Institute for Global Dialogue. October 2008. Archived from the original on 1 January 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  9. ↑ "African integration is great but has its hurdles". New Vision. 26 May 2010. Archived from the original on 19 June 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  10. ↑ Mugisha, Ivan R. (2010-08-20). "Rwanda back to Central Africa bloc, 10 years on". theeastafrican.co.ke. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  11. ↑ Africa free trade zone in operation by 2018

Sources

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