@article{Karingi:331904,
      recid = {331904},
      author = {Karingi, Stephen N. and Fekadu, Belay},
      title = {Beyond Political Rhetoric – the Meaning of the Grand  Eastern and Southern Africa FTA},
      address = {2009},
      pages = {33},
      year = {2009},
      note = {Presented at the 12th Annual Conference on Global Economic  Analysis, Santiago, Chile},
      abstract = {The multiple and overlapping regional integration  initiatives in Africa have for many years been used as  examples of what it means to lack political will. Despite  there being a general consensus that regional integration  is an indispensable pillar of Africa’s development, it  remains puzzling why the integration initiatives in the  continent have not been rationalized. Several explanations  have been offered why multiple and overlapping memberships  to regional economic communities proliferated in Africa. It  has been argued that the integration initiatives in Africa  have been driven more by political economic issues, rather  than a true desire to foster trade integration. Yet in  recent years, some African institutions have elevated their  criticism of the spaghetti bowl character of regional  integration in the continent. The political leadership of  the continent appears now to be listening, given the freeze  imposed in 2006 by the Summit of the African Union in  recognizing any new regional economic communities. The need  for rationalization and harmonization of the integration  initiatives has also been accepted in principle, with some  African countries now going the extra mile to conduct  cost-benefit studies to determine the viability of being in  more than one overlapping regional economic communities.  One example where progress appears to be starting is the  coming together of the East African Community (EAC), the  Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and  the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and  agreeing to work towards a fast-track process to lay the  foundation for a grand Eastern and Southern Africa FTA.  Besides the harmonization of trade policies, the three  regional economic communities have agreed to undertake  cross-RECs infrastructure projects to ensure that even as  the trade policies are rationalized, trade facilitation  efficiency will also be enhanced. This paper looks at what  the grand COMESA-EAC-SADC (CES) FTA portends. The paper  uses the recent African GTAP database to uncover what the  grand CES FTA could hold for the future of the member  countries. Besides aiming to uncover policy lessons that  the three RECs could draw from the analysis, the paper  takes on board the Economic Partnership Agreements that the  three RECs have individually been negotiating with the  European Union, as they are likely to have impact on the  optimality of the grand CES FTA.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/331904},
}