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African Economic Community

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

The African Economic Community (abbreviated AEC) is an organization of African Union states establishing grounds for mutual economic development among the majority of African states. The member states are mounting efforts to collaborate economically, but are impeded by civil wars raging in parts of Africa. The stated goals of the organization include the creation of free trade areas, customs unions, a single market, a central bank, and a common currency thus establishing an economic and monetary union.

Contents

Pillars of the African Economic Community

Currently there are multiple regional blocs in Africa, also known as Regional Economic Communities (abbreviated 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(AMU/UMA)

Pillar membership

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CEN-SADFounding states (1998):

Joined later:

COMESAFounding states (1994):

Joined later:

Former members:
ECOWASFounding states (1975):

Joined later:

Former members: UEMOA-94: UEMOAstate from 1994

UEMOA-97: UEMOA state from 1997
WAMZ-00: WAMZ state from 2000

EACFounding states (2001):

Joined later:

ECCASFounding states (1985):

Joined later:

CEMAC-99: CEMACstate from 1999
SADCFounding states (1980):

Joined later:

Applicant countries: SACU-70: SACUstate from 1970

SACU-90: SACU state from 1990

IGADFounding states (1986):

Joined later:

UMA1 Founding states (1989):

     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. Active REC pillars of the African Economic Community.

Other blocs

Other trade blocs in Africa not part of the African Economic Community.

Other African regional blocs, not participating in the AEC (their members can be part of other regional blocs which do participate), are the following.

Their membership is as follows:

GAFTA1 CEPGLCOILGAMRU2005 membership: 1976 membership: 1984 membership: 1970 membership: 1973 membership:

Joined later:

1 Only African GAFTA members are listed.
GAFTA is the only bloc 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:

  1. (to be completed in 1999) Creation of regional blocs in regions where such do not yet exist
  2. (to be completed in 2007) Strengthening of intra-REC integration and inter-REC harmonisation
  3. (to be completed in 2017) Establishing of a free trade area and customs union in each regional bloc
  4. (to be completed in 2019) Establishing of a continent-wide customs union (and thus also a free trade area)
  5. (to be completed in 2023) Establishing of a continent-wide African Common Market (ACM)
  6. (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 UMA members and Sahrawi Republic not participating. Somalia is participating, but no practical implementation as of yet.
  • Stage 2: Steady progress, nothing factual to check.
  • Stage 3:
  Regional blocs - pillars of the African Economic Community (AEC) Activity CEN-SADCOMESAEACECCASECOWASIGADSADCUMACEMACCommon UEMOAWAMZCommon SACUCommon Free Trade Areastalled progressing 1 fully in force fully in force proposed for 2007 ? fully in force proposed stalled fully in force proposed for 2008 stalled Customs Unionstalled proposed for 2008 fully in force fully in force proposed for 2011 ? fully in force proposed for 2007 stalled fully in force proposed for 2010 stalled

1 Members not yet participating: Angola, 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]

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

Overall progress

Activities Regional bloc Free Trade AreaCustoms UnionEconomic and monetary unionFree TravelPoliticalpact Defence pactSingle MarketCurrency UnionVisa-freeBorder-lessAEC proposed for 2019 proposed for 2019 proposed for 2023 proposed for 2028 proposed for 2028  ? CEN-SADproposed for 2010 COMESAin force 1 proposed for 2008  ? proposed for 2018 EACin force in force proposed for 2009 proposed for 2009proposed  ? proposed for 2010 ECCASCEMACin force in force  ? in force Commonproposed for 2007 ? proposed for 2011 ? proposed proposed proposed  ? in forceECOWASUEMOAin force in force  ? in force WAMZ ? proposed for 2009 Commonproposed 2 proposed for 2007  ? proposed in force 1 proposed proposed in forceIGADSADCSACUin force in force de-facto in force1  ? Common[2]proposed for 2008 3 proposed for 2010 proposed for 2015 proposed for 2016 UMA

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

Comparison between regional blocs

African Economic Community
Pillars
regional
blocs (REC) Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Member
states in millions per capita AEC 29,910,442 853,520,010 2,053,706 2,406 53 ECOWAS5,112,903 251,646,263 342,519 1,361 15 ECCAS6,667,421 121,245,958 175,928 1,451 11 SADC9,882,959 233,944,179 737,335 3,152 15 EAC1,817,945 124,858,568 104,239 1,065 5 COMESA12,873,957 406,102,471 735,599 1,811 20 IGAD5,233,604 187,969,775 225,049 1,197 7 Western
Sahara1 266,000 273,008  ?  ? N/A 2 Other
African
blocs Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Member
states in millions per capita CEMAC3 3,020,142 34,970,529 85,136 2,435 6 SACU3 2,693,418 51,055,878 541,433 10,605 5 UEMOA3 3,505,375 80,865,222 101,640 1,257 8 UMA4 5,782,140 84,185,073 491,276 5,836 5 GAFTA5 5,876,960 166,259,603 635,450 3,822 5 1 The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic(SADR) is a
signatory to the AEC, but not participating in any bloc yet

2 Majority under military occupation by Morocco; some
territory administered by the SADR
3 Economic bloc inside a pillar REC
4 Proposed for pillar REC, but objecting participation
5 Non-African members of GAFTA are excluded from figures
     smallest value among the blocs compared      largest value among the blocs compared During 2004. Source: CIA World Factbook 2005, IMF WEO Database

This box: view • talk • editMost active regional blocs
(as of 2004, except as noted) Regional bloc1 Area Population GDP ($US) Member
states1 km²sq miin millions (PPP) in millions (nominal) per capita (PPP) per capita (nominal) AU29,797,500 11,504,879 897,548,804 1,515,000 1,131,850 1,896 1,261 53 ASEAN(2007 est.) 4,497,493 1,736,000 566,500,000 3,115,480 1,173,000 5,541 2,041 10 CACM422,614 163,172 37,816,598 159,536 84,792 4,219 2,242 5 CARICOM462,344 178,512 14,565,083 64,219 24,020 4,409 1,649 (14+1)3 CCASG / GCC2,285,844 882,569 35,869,438 536,223 717,800 14,949 20,011 6 CEFTA298,148 115,116 28,929,682 222,041 122,001 7,675 4,217 (7+1)3 EU(2007 est.) 4,324,782 1,669,808 497,000,000 14,953,000 16,574,000 28,213 33,482 27 EurAsEC20,789,100 8,026,720 208,067,618 1,689,137 1,125,528 8,118 5,409 6 EFTA(2007 est.) 529,600 204,480 12,660,623 567,500 743,300 44,828 60,000 4 GAFTA9,421,946 3,637,834 280,727,416 1,341,298 N/A 4,778 N/A (16+1)3 GUAM810,506 312,938 63,764,600 456,173 106,469 7,154 1,670 4 NAFTA(2007 est.) 21,783,850 8,410,792 445,000,000 15,857,000 15,723,000 35,491 35,564 3 PARTA528,151 203,920 7,810,905 23,074 N/A 2,954 N/A (12+2)3 SAARC5,136,740 1,983,306 1,467,255,669 4,074,031 N/A 2,777 N/A 8 Unasur / Unasul17,339,153 6,694,684 370,158,470 2,868,430 N/A 7,749 N/A 12 UN and countries
for reference2 Area Population GDP ($US) Units4 km²sq miin millions (PPP) in millions (nominal) per capita (PPP) per capita (nominal) UN133,178,011 51,420,318 6,411,682,270 55,167,630 48,245,198 8,604 7,524 192 Brazil(2007 est.) 8,514,877 3,287,612 183,888,841 1,804,000 1,067,706 10,073 6,842 27 Canada(2007 est.) 9,984,670 3,855,103 33,000,000 1,274,000 1,406,000 38,200 42,738 13 India(2007 est.) 3,287,590 1,269,346 1,120,000,000 4,726,000 1,089,000 4,182 1,004 35 Japan(2007 est.) 377,873 145,898 127,433,494 4,346,000 4,346,000 33,800 38,341 47 PR China5 (2007 est.) 9,596,960 3,705,407 1,321,851,888 7,043,000 3,420,000 5,300 2,800 33 Russia(2007 est.) 17,075,200 6,592,772 142,500,000 2,076,000 1,286,000 14,600 9,056 83 USA(2007 est.) 9,826,630 3,794,083 302,000,000 13,543,000 13,794,700 43,500 45,594 50 Source: CIA World Factbook 2005, IMFWEO Database, IMF nominal figures for 2006.[citation needed] Legend      smallest value among the blocs compared     largest value among the blocs compared

Footnotes
1 Including data only for full and most active members.
2 Including the largest five countries by area, population (not #4), GDP (PPP) (not #5), and GDP (nominal) (not #3 or #5).
3 Including non-sovereign autonomous areas of other states.
4 Members or administrative divisions.
5 Data for the People's Republic of China does not include Hong Kong, Macau, or the independent Republic of China (Taiwan) (over which PRC claims sovereignty).

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See also

This article is part of the series:
   History of the African Union    History of AfricaUnion of African StatesOrganisation of African UnityAfrican Economic Community Sirte DeclarationConstitutive Act of the African UnionUnion Launch

References

External links

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