This paper analyses the role of regional trade agreements in fostering regional integration in Africa, using information from relevant treaties and protocols, existing literature on regionalism in Africa, past studies, and the UN Comtrade database.

Key findings:

Similarity in nature and scope: The thesis finds similarity in the nature and scope of regional agreements in Africa, going beyond trade liberalisation issues to politics, security, social, and cultural issues.

Membership restrictions: Some agreements (e.g., COMESA and SADC) do not restrict members from entering into new preferential agreements; others (e.g., EAC) are silent on preferential agreements.

Increased intra-regional trade: The study also finds increased intra-regional trade for regions that introduced customs unions or free trade areas. Bilateral trade flows also happened to be higher between members of a preferential arrangement than with third countries.

Challenges from external agreements:

However, preferential agreements with external partners—in particular, the EU—seem to alter the existing relationship in regional groupings as they strive to incorporate new sets of issues into their integration agenda: competition policy, intellectual property rights, labour standards, etc. These, together with potential trade deflection and new barriers created by EPA configurations that are not coterminous with existing regional groupings, are likely to affect the pace and success of ongoing regional initiatives in Africa.