COMESA- EAC- SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area: Stepping Stone towards the Continental Free Trade Area?
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Date
2018-01
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Addis Ababa Unversity
Abstract
In Africa, various integration initiatives have been undertaken both, at the continental and
regional levels, to bring economic and political integration. The effort to establish The Tripartite
Free Trade Area (TFTA) and the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) are among the measures to
secure economic cooperation between Partner States of COMESA, EAC and SADC and African
Member States respectively.
Regional leaders and policymakers intended to use the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) as
stepping stone for the establishment of the CFTA. The notion of building the CFTA on the success
and commitments of the TFTA is a well-founded direction adopted to boost continental integration.
Both Tripartite and African Leaders designed their FTAs towards this end. However, it continues
to be debatable whether the TFTA serves as a stepping stone or otherwise for the establishment of
the CFTA.
This thesis examines whether the TFTA serves the purpose it is called for. The analysis begins with
identifying the areas of commonalities of the two FTAs. Review has been made on legal and
negotiation aspects, so as to reveal gaps and inconsistencies among the two FTAs. The paper also
assesses the TFTA’s ability to meet the objective of resolving overlapping of membership in the
Tripartite Region and its impact on the way forward of the two FTAs. It also examines challenges
that could affect the building block objective of the TFTA.
From the finding of the research, the thesis concludes that, despite the lessons learnt from the
TFTA negotiation process, the building block objective is now turned in to stumbling block for the
CFTA in particular and continental integration in general as it creates duplication of process and
waste of resource.In addition, the TFTA’s failure to meet its own deadlines, inability to resolve the
problem of overlapping membership, adopted conflicting negotiation principles and unavailability
of legal framework channeling the two FTAs water downthe proposal to start the CFTA
negotiation from the point where the TFTA has reached. Thus, the thesisrecommends the necessity
for a more realistic approach to enable the TFTA to perform the function it is called for, i.e.
stepping stone.
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Keywords
TFTA, CFTA, Stepping Stone