Review of recent developments in subregional intergration in Eastern and Southern Africa

Abstract

This report reviews major developments in economic co operation and integration in Eastern and Southern Africa since 1991 when a report on "Evaluation of Progress in Economic Integration in Eastern and Southern Africa: Ten Years After the Establishment of the Preferential Trade Area (PTA) for Eastern and Southern African States" was presented to the First Meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts by the Lusaka-based MULPOC secretariat. In that evaluation, it was pointed out that economic integration had progressed at a snails pace mainly because the decade of the 1980s had coincided with adverse conditions in the world economy. Furthermore, the institutional frameworks were inadequate to meet the challenges of integration and the economic and social crisis. It was also shown that intra-subregional trade, payments, clearing and credit facilities functioned at a very low level to induce economic integration. Sectoral integration had barely taken root ten years after- the,: establishment of the PTA.