Multiple and overlapping regional economic community (REC) membership structures are complicating cross-border trade relationships among the African countries. They are also hampering the rollout of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), according to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) researchers Mesut Saygili and Ralf Peters.Their analysis of African trade trends has found that “unifying the trade regime across the continent can promote the f low of goods and services within the borders of the continent”.The presence of eight RECs in Africa creates a “spaghetti bowl” of cross-border agreements which need to be untangled in order to avoid conf lict with AfCFTA initiatives and regulations.Willemien Viljoen, a researcher at the Trade Law Centre, points out that Article 19(2) of the AfCFTA agreement states: “Other RECs, regional trade arrangements and customs unions which have attained among themselves higher levels of regional integration than under this agreement shall maintain such higher levels among themselves.”A number of RECs have already met or exceeded the AfCFTA targets, she says.Intra-REC tariffs for the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu), the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (Cemac), the East African Community (EAC) and the Community Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) have been fully liberalised.All the countries making up the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), except Mauritania, have achieved full liberalisation under the Pan-Arab Free Trade Area (Pafta). A Morocco-Mauritania free trade agreement (FTA) is also in place. The same holds true for intra-Africa trade with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) as most members are also members of the EAC and/or the Comesa FTA, and there are some tariff preferences in place for Ethiopia and Eritrea under the Comesa FTA. In the case of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), 99.7% of tariff lines are duty-free (wheat f lour, motor vehicle components, sugar and second-hand clothes are excluded), while intra-SADC imports into Mauritius are fully liberalised.A further challenge, according to Saygili and Peters, is that “a relatively low performance in trade facilitation indicators is also hampering trade and economic development in the region. Many African countries score low in e-commerce, linear shipping connectivity and doing business indicators.”
