A Primer to Economic Regional Integration in Africa

“Africa could rightly be described as the major theatre of contemporary cases of shared sovereignty.”[1]

It is the hope of many African leaders that greater cohesion in African trade will lead to more firm patterns of national development. Formalizing the international trade sector within Africa could lead to greater national tax revenues, a freer exchange of ideas, labour and technology across borders, the stabilization of regional agricultural and natural resource markets, and greater cooperation over shared infrastructure projects such as the creation of highways, waterways development, and even the deployment of green technology such as wind energy projects.[2]

While more flamboyant African leaders such as Muammar Gaddafi stress the need for pan-African unity (Gaddafi even calling for a United States of Africa), smaller regional unification bodies are already active. Most Westerners might be surprised that much of West Africa, the nations of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), already has a unified currency between fifteen nations. Since its creation by treaty in 1993, ECOWAS trade commissioners from a diverse array of fields attempt to integrate trans-national policies on social affairs, water resources, energy, and security matters. Just as NATO intervenes in foreign conflicts, when civil unrest unfolds in member states, such as recently in Guinea, ECOWAS applies strong diplomatic and military pressure to uphold the rule of law.

The East African Community (EAC) was first launched in 1967, but was then dissolved and later re-launched after a treaty agreement was signed in 1999 between its three original member states: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Burundi and Rwanda later became full members of the EAC. The EAC has worked to harmonize national and municipal laws and strengthen the training of the judiciary within the community. The East African Passport was introduced with the creation of the modern EAC, and alongside efforts to decrease trade tariffs it has been integral to helping people and goods move across borders with relative ease. Citizens of NAFTA countries should be so lucky! The EAC envisages sharp integration in terms of foreign policy and a full monetary union under its common market – although no timetable has been set for this.[3]

Another strong regional body in Africa is the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which was established in its modern form during the waning days of Apartheid via treaty in 1992. The SADC also tackles a variety of issues, including the reduction of drug trafficking, preservation of shared waterways, and legal harmonization. A free trade area was launched in August 2008 and the SADC’s member states are now collectively pursuing investment in their national economies. The relatively light hand applied to the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe demonstrates that the SADC lacks the diplomatic strength of a body like ECOWAS. Instead, the organization seems to focus on shared goals in economic development more than on the cultivation of shared political institutions.

An interesting development has been the launching of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which since its creation via treaty in 1993 has fostered closer links between the nations of the SADC and the EAC, among other nations. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has long pushed for regional integration in this region,[4] which is bound together through aspects of its colonial and post-colonial identity, as well as geographic avenues of trade that makes such integration beneficial to regional development goals.[5] COMESA also extends to other nations not involved in formal regional political integration schemes, such as Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt and Libya. However, not all nations of the aforementioned bodies have taken part in COMESA, notably Tanzania who quit its involvement in the year 2000.

It is also notable that the nations of the Maghreb and North Africa have to this date made very few concrete efforts to engage in regional economic integration. While The League of Arab States has as its goal the promotion of commercial relations between Arabic speaking peoples, this has not translated into large-scale economic integration in the Arab world, including North Africa. Rather, the Arab League has served as a socio-political organization. Maghreb states have toyed with the idea of further economic and political integration but planning is still in the development phase.

ECOWAS, the EAC, the SADC and COMESA can all play a role in driving economic development in Africa. In particular, they can help businesses feel safe to expand across borders through more strict and clear regulation and through ensuring that proper arbitration systems are in place. Amazu Asouzu writes that post-colonial African states have traditionally not trusted larger arbitration regimes such as the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). These states viewed “arbitration as an alien system of justice devised to subvert the institutions and interests of developing states.”[6] Political enforcement of such legal mechanisms, through mutually beneficial regional development, can play a role in helping businesses enter new markets, create jobs, and improve the lives of African peoples.

The right to development stresses the indivisibility off human rights, and the inter-linkages between civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights, on the other.[7]

However, this brand of economic development must be coupled with a human rights and social agenda in mind – one that is backed up by diplomatic and military force if national leaders get out of hand. ECOWAS, however belatedly or poorly, has flexed its muscles to bring its member states into line on these issues. The SADC has failed to recognize these principles in its dealings with Zimbabwe. Using a dualistic socio-economic approach, the aforementioned regional bodies can be active members in helping African peoples recognize their collective right to development.

[The author will spend six months in 2010 blogging from Cape Town, South Africa, covering topics related to regional integration issues in African governance, particularly energy, trade, and security concerns.]

[2] Henry Kibet Mutai, Compliance with International Trade Obligations: The Common Market for Eastern and Souther Africa (Boston: Kluwer Law International, 2007) at 104.

[3] Ibid at 119.

[4] Ibid at 129.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Amazu A. Asouzu, International Commercial Arbitration and African States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) at 412.

[7] Tiyanjana Maluwa, International Law in Post-Colonial Africa (Boston: Kluwer Law International, 1999) at 312.

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