African Economic Community

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

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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.

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:

Pillar membership

     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.

• 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:

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:

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:

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

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) ($US) Member states in millions per capita AEC 29,910,442 853,520,010 2,053,706 2,406 53 ECOWAS 5,112,903 251,646,263 342,519 1,361 15 ECCAS 6,667,421 121,245,958 175,928 1,451 11 SADC 9,882,959 233,944,179 737,335 3,152 15 EAC 1,817,945 124,858,568 104,239 1,065 5 COMESA 12,873,957 406,102,471 735,599 1,811 20 IGAD 5,233,604 187,969,775 225,049 1,197 7 Western Sahara 3 266,000 273,008  ?  ? N/A 4 Other African blocs Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Member states in millions per capita CEMAC 1 3,020,142 34,970,529 85,136 2,435 6 SACU 1 2,693,418 51,055,878 541,433 10,605 5 UEMOA 1 3,505,375 80,865,222 101,640 1,257 8 UMA 2 5,782,140 84,185,073 491,276 5,836 5 Agadir 1,703,910 126,066,286 513,674 4,075 4 1 Economic bloc inside a pillar REC 2 Proposed for pillar REC, but objecting participation 3 The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) is a signatory to the AEC, but not participating in any bloc yet 4 Majority under military occupation by Morocco; some territory administered by the SADR      smallest value among the blocs compared      largest value among the blocs compared During 2004. Source: CIA World Factbook 2005, IMF WEO Database This box:  •  • edit

This article or section needs to be updated. Parts of this article or section are no longer up to date. Please update the article to reflect recent events, and remove this template when finished. Most active regional blocs as of 2004 Regional bloc1 Area Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Member states1 km² sq mi in millions per capita Agadir 1,703,910 657,883 126,066,286 513,674 4,075 4 AU 29,797,500 11,504,879 897,548,804 1,515,000 1,896 53 ASEAN 4,400,000 1,699,000 553,900,000 2,172,000 4,044 10 CACM 422,614 163,172 37,816,598 159,536 4,219 5 CARICOM 462,344 178,512 14,565,083 64,219 4,409 (14+1)3 CCASG / GCC 2,285,844 882,569 35,869,438 536,223 14,949 6 CEFTA 298,148 115,116 28,929,682 222,041 7,675 (7+1)3 EU 4,325,675 1,670,152 496,198,605 12,025,415 24,235 27 EurAsEC 20,789,100 8,026,720 208,067,618 1,689,137 8,118 6 EFTA 529,600 204,480 12,233,467 471,547 38,546 4 GUAM 810,506 312,938 63,764,600 456,173 7,154 4 NAFTA 21,588,638 8,335,420 430,495,039 15,279,000 35,491 3 PARTA 528,151 203,920 7,810,905 23,074 2,954 (14+2)3 SAARC 5,136,740 1,983,306 1,467,255,669 4,074,031 2,777 8 Unasur / Unasul 17,339,153 6,694,684 370,158,470 2,868,430 7,749 12 UN and countries for reference2 Area Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Units4 km² sq mi in millions per capita UN 133,178,011 51,420,318 6,411,682,270 55,167,630 8,604 192 Brazil 8,514,877 3,287,612 188,078,261 1,594,482 9,108 27 Canada 9,984,670 3,855,103 32,507,874 1,165,000 35,200 13 India 3,287,590 1,269,346 1,102,600,000 4,042,000 3,700 35 Japan 377,873 145,898 128,085,000 4,220,000 33,100 47 PR China5 9,596,960 3,705,407 1,306,847,624 10,000,000 7,600 33 Russia 17,075,200 6,592,772 143,782,338 1,723,000 12,100 89 USA 9,631,418 3,718,711 300,000,000 12,980,000 43,500 50 Source: CIA World Factbook 2005, IMF WEO Database. 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 and GDP (PPP), but not #4 in population or #5 in GDP (PPP). 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 regions administered    by the Republic of China (Taiwan). This box:  •  • edit

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