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Integration along the Abuja road map - A progress report

Author

Listed:
  • Jaime DE MELO

    (Ferdi)

  • Meriem NOUAR

    (FERDI)

  • Jean-marc SOLLEDER

    (Université de Genève)

Abstract

This paper reviews integration among the eight African Regional Economic Communities by comparing their characteristics and progress with three other South–South Regional Integration Arrangements. Three conclusions emerge: (i) slow progress towards meeting overly ambitious objectives; (ii) small changes in the destination of trade across all Regional Economic Communities, indicative of persistent high trade costs and few new manufactures products destined for geographically close markets; and (iii) compared with other South–South Regional Integration Arrangements, the Regional Economic Communities include a high number of provisions not covered in Word Trade Organization negotiations, but these have low legal enforceability. Reasons for this slow progress are explored in the paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Jaime DE MELO & Meriem NOUAR & Jean-marc SOLLEDER, 2017. "Integration along the Abuja road map - A progress report," Working Papers P191, FERDI.
    • Handle: RePEc:fdi:wpaper:3848
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    Cited by:

    1. Bruce BYIERS & Jaime DE MELO & Ed BROWN, 2018. "Working with the grain of African integration," Working Papers 4533, FERDI.
    2. Jaime de Melo & Anna Twum, 2020. "Supply chain trade in East Africa: Prospects and challenges," Working Papers hal-02493410, HAL.
    3. Jaime de Melo, 2020. "A Dashboard for Trade Policy Diagnostics," Working Papers hal-03004368, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    intégration régionale;

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F55 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Institutional Arrangements
    • F63 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Economic Development

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