Governing the African continental free trade area–regional Economic communities interface

Abstract

Africa’s regional economic communities (RECs) advance the continent’s integration, contributing to the implementation of such strategic frameworks as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The RECs’ progress and the challenges they have faced in trying to promote trade integration among their member States positions them for that role. Consolidating the multiple and overlapping trading regimes in the RECs’ free trade areas (REC-FTAs) to accelerate regional and continental integration is a main objective of the AfCFTA. Doing so requires careful and thoughtful management and governance. This report analyses key issues concerning the interface between the AfCFTA and REC-FTAs. It proffers actionable policy proposals that support a coherent, coordinated and fully responsive interface. The study also suggests how to leverage the RECs’ trade integration achievements and successes and lessons from REC-FTA failures to improve AfCFTA implementation. Using a combination of research methods, the report analyses and interprets the role of RECs as building blocks of the African Economic Community (AEC); the relationships among RECFTAs, the AfCFTA and the AEC; and mechanisms for building the interface and managing it to effectively implement the AfCFTA. It studies three options for the interface: RECs trade departments serving as sub-secretariats of the AfCFTA secretariat, RECs’ relevant organs assigned specific roles to coordinate AfCFTA activities within a framework of a well-articulated division of labour, and REC-FTAs integrated into the AfCFTA.