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The Tripartite Free Trade Area: A Step Closer to the African Economic Community?

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  • First Online:
European Yearbook of International Economic Law 2016

Part of the book series: European Yearbook of International Economic Law ((EUROYEAR,volume 7))

Abstract

On the 10th of June 2015 the heads of state of three Regional Economic Communities in Africa, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), signed a declaration launching the biggest Free Trade Area (FTA) in Africa as well as opening a Tripartite FTA Agreement (The Agreement) for signature. The Tripartite FTA has the potential to open up a market comprising more than half the population of Africa with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 1.3 Trillion as at 2014 which was roughly 58 % of Africa’s GDP.

Regional integration has largely been embraced in Africa as a means to realise economic development and sustainable growth. The formalisation by the Member States of the EAC, COMESA and SADC of the Agreement is therefore highly laudable. However, though the Tripartite FTA presents an opportunity to set in motion the establishment of a Continental FTA and the eventual establishment of an African Economic Community, the reality is that there are considerable challenges that need to be overcome before the Tripartite FTA can be actualised.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sherwood (2012), pp. 106–126.

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  3. 3.

    Charter of the Organization of African Unity (OAU Charter) 479 U.N.T.S. 39. The preamble reflects this intention.

  4. 4.

    See, e.g., Declaration on African Cooperation, Development, and Economic Independence, I.L.M 12(4): 996–1013. The preamble for instance expressed the concern over the widening gap in economic development between Africa and the developed world.

  5. 5.

    OAU Charter, Article 1 and 2.

  6. 6.

    Treaty establishing the African Economic Community (AEC Treaty), 30 I.L.M. 1241 (1991).

  7. 7.

    AEC Treaty, Article 6(2). In respect of the third stage the AEC Treaty provides that “At the level of each regional economic community and within a period not exceeding ten (10) years, establishment of a Free Trade Area through the observance of the time-table for the gradual removal of Tariff Barriers and Non-Tariff Barriers to intra-community trade and the establishment of a Customs Union by means of adopting a common external tariff.”

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    The African Union Assembly launches the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) negotiations, 17 June 2015, http://summits.au.int/en/25thsummit/events/african-union-assembly-launches-continental-free-trade-area-cfta-negotiations (last accessed 14 September 2015).

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    COMESA Member States are Burundi, The Comoros, Egypt, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

  10. 10.

    Treaty Establishing the Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern African States (PTA Treaty), 21 ILM 479 (1981), Article 29; See also Treaty Establishing a Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA Treaty), 33 I.L.M. 1067 (1994), preamble.

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  12. 12.

    PTA Treaty, Article 3.

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  15. 15.

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  18. 18.

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  19. 19.

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  33. 33.

    COMESA Infrastructure Report, para 6.3. Very little information exists about the COMTEL Project with some previous reports indicating that most Member States chose to pursue their own ICT development objectives.

  34. 34.

    ARICEA Report, p. 4.

  35. 35.

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  36. 36.

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  37. 37.

    History of the EAC, http://www.eac.int/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44&Itemid=54 (last accessed 14 September 2015); The EAC had however previously been in place with a customs union between Kenya, Uganda and the then Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in the 1920 as well an earlier EAC which was dissolved in 1977. Subsequent efforts to reintegrate the three states led to the reestablishment of the EAC.

  38. 38.

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  39. 39.

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  40. 40.

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    Info available at http://www.eac.int/customs/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=137&Itemid=169 (last accessed 14 September 2015). The elimination had however been gradual in respect of various goods from Kenya to Uganda and Tanzania to enable their producers to adjust to the increased competition from the Kenyan imports. See Mugisa E. et al. (2009), An Evaluation of the Implementation and Impact of the East African Community Customs Union, p. 13, http://www.customs.eac.int/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=84&Itemid=106 (last accessed 14 September 2015).

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    NTB Report (2014), p. 25.

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  52. 52.

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    World Bank/EAC Secretariat (2014) East African Common Market Scorecard 2014: Tracking EAC compliance in the movement of Capital, Services and Goods (EAC Common Market Scorecard), https://www.wbginvestmentclimate.org/publications/upload/East-African-Common-Market-Scorecard-2014.pdf (last accessed 14 September 2015).

  54. 54.

    EAC Common Market Scorecard (2014), p. 3. Kenya’s laws reportedly make it easier to move capital while Tanzania’s and Burundi’s are the most restrictive.

  55. 55.

    EAC Common Market Scorecard (2014), pp. 3–4.

  56. 56.

    UNECA (2012), Towards a Common Currency in the East African Community(EAC) Issues, Challenges and Prospects (UNECA Report), http://www.uneca.og/sites/default/files/PublicationFiles/towards_a_common_currency_in_the_eac-2012.pdf (last accessed 14 September 2015).

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    The Member States are: Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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  94. 94.

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    Vincent Angwenyi

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  1. Chair for Public Law, International and European Law, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Marc Bungenberg

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Passau , Passau, Germany

    Christoph Herrmann

  3. Chair for Public Law and International Law, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg Faculty of Law, Erlangen, Germany

    Markus Krajewski

  4. Competition and Regulation Institute, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany

    Jörg Philipp Terhechte

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Angwenyi, V. (2016). The Tripartite Free Trade Area: A Step Closer to the African Economic Community?. In: Bungenberg, M., Herrmann, C., Krajewski, M., Terhechte, J. (eds) European Yearbook of International Economic Law 2016. European Yearbook of International Economic Law, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29215-1_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29215-1_27

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-29214-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-29215-1

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