African Economic Community

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members of AEC pillar blocs

states signatories to the AEC Treaty, but not participating in any of the pillars

The African Economic Community (AEC) is an organization 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.

Pillars 1
- Pillar membership 1.1
- Other blocs 1.2
Goals 2
- Stages progress 2.1
- Overall progress 2.2
African Free Trade Zone 3
See also 4
References 5

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:

Pillars	Subgroups
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)
Arab Maghreb Union (UMA)

Pillar membership

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CEN-SAD
Founding states (1998): Burkina Faso Chad Libya Mali Niger Sudan Joined later: 1999: Central African Republic 1999: Eritrea 2000: Djibouti 2000: Gambia 2000: Senegal 2001: Egypt 2001: Morocco 2001: Nigeria 2001: Somalia 2001: Tunisia 2002: Benin 2002: Togo 2004: Ivory Coast 2004: Guinea-Bissau 2004: Liberia 2005: Ghana 2005: Sierra Leone 2007: Comoros 2007: Guinea 2008: Kenya 2008: Mauritania 2008: São Tomé and Príncipe

COMESA
Founding states (1994): Burundi Comoros DR Congo Djibouti Eritrea Ethiopia Kenya Madagascar Malawi Mauritius Rwanda Sudan Swaziland Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe Joined later: 1999: Egypt 2001: Seychelles 2006: Libya 2011: South Sudan
Former members: 1994-1997: Lesotho 1994-1997: Mozambique 1994-2000: Tanzania 1994-2004: Namibia 1994-2007: Angola^[1]^[2]

ECOWAS
Founding states (1975): Benin ^UEMOA-94 Burkina Faso ^UEMOA-94 Ivory Coast ^UEMOA-94 Gambia ^WAMZ-00 Ghana ^WAMZ-00 Guinea ^WAMZ-00 Guinea-Bissau ^UEMOA-97 Liberia ^WAMZ-10 Mali ^UEMOA-94 Niger ^UEMOA-94 Nigeria ^WAMZ-00 Senegal ^UEMOA-94 Sierra Leone ^WAMZ-00 Togo ^UEMOA-94 Joined later: 1976: Cape Verde
Former members: 1975-2002: Mauritania
UEMOA-94: UEMOA state from 1994 UEMOA-97: UEMOA state from 1997 WAMZ-00: WAMZ state from 2000 WAMZ-10: WAMZ state from 2010

EAC
Founding states (2001): Kenya Tanzania Uganda Joined later: 2007: Burundi 2007: Rwanda

ECCAS
Founding states (1985): Burundi Cameroon ^CEMAC-99 Central African Republic ^CEMAC-99 Chad ^CEMAC-99 Congo ^CEMAC-99 DR Congo Equatorial Guinea ^CEMAC-99 Gabon ^CEMAC-99 São Tomé and Príncipe Joined later: 1999: Angola
Former members: 1985-2007: Rwanda^[3]
CEMAC-99: CEMAC state from 1999

SADC
Founding states (1980): Angola Botswana ^SACU-70 Lesotho ^SACU-70 Malawi Mozambique Swaziland ^SACU-70 Tanzania Zambia Zimbabwe Joined later: 1990: Namibia ^SACU-90 1990: South Africa ^SACU-70 1995: Mauritius 1997: DR Congo 1997: Seychelles ^{withdrawn 2004-2007} 2005: Madagascar
SACU-70: SACU state from 1970 SACU-90: SACU state from 1990

IGAD
Founding states (1986): Djibouti Ethiopia Kenya Somalia Sudan Uganda Joined later: 1993: Eritrea 2011: South Sudan

UMA ¹
Founding states (1989): Algeria Libya Mauritania Morocco Tunisia

member states; year of joining

member states; year of joining; cooperation in the framework of the bloc stalled

candidate states; year of application

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

• •

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

Other blocs

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 (their members can be part of other regional blocs which do participate), are the following.

Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA) (also includes most Middle Eastern states)
Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL)
Indian Ocean Commission (COI)
Liptako-Gourma Authority (LGA)
Mano River Union (MRU)

Their membership is as follows:

GAFTA ¹	CEPGL	COI	LGA	MRU
2005 membership: Egypt Libya Morocco Sudan Tunisia Joined later: 2009: Algeria	1976 membership: Burundi DR Congo Rwanda	1984 membership: Comoros Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles	1970 membership: Burkina Faso Mali Niger	1973 membership: Liberia Sierra Leone Joined later: 1980: Guinea 2008: Côte d'Ivoire

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

Goals

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

(to be completed in 1999) Creation of regional blocs in regions where such do not yet exist
(to be completed in 2007) Strengthening of intra-REC integration and inter-REC harmonisation
(to be completed in 2017) Establishing of a free trade area and customs union in each regional bloc
(to be completed in 2019) Establishing of a continent-wide customs union (and thus also a free trade area)
(to be completed in 2023) Establishing of a continent-wide African Common Market (ACM)
(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

Stage 1: Completed, only Arab Maghreb Union members and Sahrawi Republic not participating. Somalia is participating, but no practical implementation yet.
Stage 2: Steady progress, nothing factual to check.
Stage 3:

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)[1]
² Members not yet participating: Angola, DR Congo, Seychelles [2]

Stage 4: no progress yet
Stage 5: no progress yet
Stage 6: no progress yet

Overall progress

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

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.^[6]

References

A single African currency in our time?
African leaders agree to form single market
African Union Official Website
South African webpage on RECs
Pan-African Perspective

^ "SADC, COMESA and the EAC: Conflicting regional and trade agendas". Institute for Global Dialogue. October 2008. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
^ "African integration is great but has its hurdles". New Vision. 26 May 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
^ "SADC, COMESA and the EAC: Conflicting regional and trade agendas". Institute for Global Dialogue. October 2008. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
^ WT/COMTD/N/11
^ WT/COMTD/N/21
^ Africa free trade zone in operation by 2018

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