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EspañolAFRICAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY
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 |
| Pillar membership |
| Other blocs |
| Goals |
| Stages progress |
| Overall progress |
| Comparison between Regional blocs |
| See also |
| References |
| External Links |
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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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.
★ Agadir Agreement (includes Mediterranean states, one from Asia)
★ 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:
| Agadir 1 | CEPGL | COI | LGA | MRU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| '2004 membership:' ★ ★ ★ ★ | '1976 membership:' ★ ★ ★ | '1984 membership:' ★ ★ ★ ★ | '1970 membership:' ★ ★ ★ | '1973 membership:' ★ ★ 'Joined later:' ★ 1980: |
1 The Agadir Agreement 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:
# (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 December 2005''
★ 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) | Other blocs | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Activity | CEN-SAD | COMESA | EAC | ECOWAS | ECCAS | IGAD | SADC | Agadir | UMA | |||
| UEMOA | Common | CEMAC | Common | SACU | Common | |||||||
| 'Free Trade Area' | stalled | progressing 1 | fully in force | fully in force | proposed | fully in force | proposed for 2007 ? | stalled | fully in force | proposed for 2008 | fully in force | stalled |
| 'Customs Union' | stalled | proposed for 2008 | fully in force | fully in force | proposed for 2007 | fully in force | proposed for 2011 ? | 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 Area | Customs Union | Economic and monetary union | Free Travel | Political pact | Defence pact | |||
| Single Market | Currency Union | Visa-free | Border-less | ||||||
| 'AEC' | proposed for 2019 | proposed for 2019 | proposed for 2023 | proposed for 2028 | proposed for 2028 | ? | |||
| 'CEN-SAD' | proposed for 2010 | ||||||||
| 'COMESA' | in force 1 | proposed for 2008 | ? | proposed for 2018 | |||||
| 'EAC' | in force | in force | proposed for 2009 | proposed for 2009 | proposed | ? | proposed for 2010 | ||
| 'ECCAS' | CEMAC | in force | in force | ? | in force | ||||
| 'Common' | proposed for 2007 ? | proposed for 2011 ? | proposed | proposed | proposed | ? | in force | ||
| 'ECOWAS' | UEMOA | in force | in force | ? | in force | ||||
| 'Common' | proposed 2 | proposed for 2007 | ? | proposed for 2009 1 and proposed common | in force 1 | proposed | proposed | in force | |
| 'IGAD' | |||||||||
| 'SADC' | SACU | in force | in force | de-facto in force 1 | ? | ||||
| '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
See also
★ Economy of Africa
★ Economy of the African Union
References
★ A single African currency in our time?
External Links
★ African Union Offical Website
★ South African webpage on RECs
★ Pan-African Perspective
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