Regional Arrangements

2019 ◽  
pp. 121-156
Author(s):  
Eleanor M. Fox ◽  
Mor Bakhoum
Keyword(s):  
West African ◽  
Common Market ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
East African ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Regional Coordination ◽  
African Community ◽  
The Common ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa

This chapter studies regional coordination in sub-Saharan Africa. Regional arrangements occupy a significant part of African competition policy. The most integrative form of arrangement is a common market, wherein member states tear down trade barriers between and among them, create supranational authorities to oversee trade and competition, and even create monetary unions. The chapter then discusses selected regional groups; namely, the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC), the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

ASSESSING AFRICAN REGIONAL INVESTMENT INSTRUMENTS AND INVESTOR–STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-232
Author(s):  
Mmiselo Freedom Qumba
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
East African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
African Community ◽  
The Common ◽  
Local Courts ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa ◽  
Investment Agreements

AbstractThis article examines the rejection of the International Investor–State dispute (ISDS) system across the African continent and its replacement with a range of domestic and regional alternatives. It assesses the advantages of the two principal options for African countries: retaining the current ISDS system, or using local courts and regional tribunals. To this end, the dispute resolution mechanisms proposed in the Pan-African Investment Code, the 2016 Southern African Development Community Finance and Investment Protocol, the SADC model BIT, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Economic Community of West African States and East African Community investment agreements and domestic approaches are critically examined. The argument is then advanced that African countries should not abandon ISDS because replacing it with isolated domestic or regional mechanisms does not reduce any of the risks. In particular, for foreign investors, the risk associated with the adjudication of investment disputes in potentially biased, politically influenced domestic courts may prove too high. African host nations, in turn, risk sending out the wrong message concerning their commitment to the protection of foreign investments. Instead of veering off course, perhaps the time has come for African States to display the political will to remain within the ISDS system and contribute to its reform from within.

scholarly journals Fighting non-communicable diseases in East Africa: assessing progress and identifying the next steps

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. e003325
Author(s):  
Christian Kraef ◽  
Pamela A Juma ◽  
Joseph Mucumbitsi ◽  
Kaushik Ramaiya ◽  
Francois Ndikumwenayo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Communicable Disease ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
East African ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Monitoring Tools ◽  
The Status ◽  
African Community ◽  
Sub Saharan

Sub-Saharan Africa has seen a rapid increase in non-communicable disease (NCD) burden over the last decades. The East African Community (EAC) comprises Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan and Uganda, with a population of 177 million. In those countries, 40% of deaths in 2015 were attributable to NCDs. We review the status of the NCD response in the countries of the EAC based on the available monitoring tools, the WHO NCD progress monitors in 2017 and 2020 and the East African NCD Alliance benchmark survey in 2017. In the EAC, modest progress in governance, prevention of risk factors, monitoring, surveillance and evaluation of health systems can be observed. Many policies exist on paper, implementation and healthcare are weak and there are large regional and subnational differences. Enhanced efforts by regional and national policy-makers, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders are needed to ensure future NCD policies and implementation improvements.

East African Community: Demographics and Economic Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-51
Author(s):  
D. V. Kuzmin ◽  
D. V. Kuzmin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Integration ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Regional Economic Integration ◽  
East African ◽  
Macroeconomic Dynamics ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Urgent Task ◽  
African Community ◽  
Sub Saharan

Regional economic integration in East Africa, as in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, remains an urgent task for States. It also arouses the interest of researchers for its features. The basis of regional economic integration in the associations of Africa in the XXI century is a stable macroeconomic dynamics, since the author proceeds from the fact that in the conditions of economic recovery, integration processes in the region are intensified. At the same time, the author believes that the socioeconomic problems common to the countries of Africa or its individual regions can also serve as a basis for the activation of integration processes.

Investment Facilitation in Regional Economic Integration in Africa: The Cases of COMESA, EAC and SADC

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 493-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rukia Baruti
Keyword(s):  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
International Investment ◽  
East African ◽  
East African Community ◽  
African Community ◽  
The Common ◽  
Investment Treaties ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa ◽  
Investment Facilitation ◽  
Investment Agreements

A rethink of the purpose of investment treaties is progressively leading to a paradigm shift. Whereas the traditional model of investment treaties has emphasised the protection of investments, we are witnessing a change in focus to the facilitation of investments. Simultaneously, there is a deliberate and conscious effort to restrict the scope of coverage of the standards of protection typically offered under such treaties. These developments in the international investment regime are discernible in the regional investment instruments concluded by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). A corresponding move is also beginning to emerge at the national and bilateral levels. Cumulatively, these changes in investment instruments signal a developing trend in future investment agreements negotiated and concluded by COMESA, EAC and SADC Member States.

Unmaking of a Customs Union: Regional (Dis)integration in the East African Community

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jakob Rauschendorfer ◽  
Anna Twum
Keyword(s):  
Regional Integration ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Customs Union ◽  
East African ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Common External Tariff ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Country Level ◽  
African Community ◽  
The Common

Abstract The Common External Tariff (CET) of the East African Community (EAC) customs union has long been considered the cornerstone of the most successful example of regional integration in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this paper, we assess the implementation of the EAC-CET using a novel dataset of country- and firm-level deviations from the common tariff regime constructed by digitizing information in gazettes published by the Secretariat of the EAC between 2009 and 2019. Employing these data, we present five patterns on EAC tariff policy: (i) increased usage of country-level deviations from the common tariff regime render the EAC-CET less and less ‘common’; (ii) Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda predominantly use unilateral deviations to increase external protection while Rwanda mostly decreases tariffs; (iii) Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda increase tariffs for the same classes of products, but target different industries; (iv) unilateral tariff reductions at the country level are mostly used to facilitate access to inputs; (v) data on firm-level exemptions suggest that private sector development in the EAC would benefit from lower tariffs on intermediate inputs. Our findings demonstrate an incipient but clear trend in the EAC away from a communal tariff regime and towards national and more protectionist trade policies.

Economic Co-operation in East Africa

1969 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-287
Author(s):  
Donald C. Mead
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Common Market ◽  
East African ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Community Institutions ◽  
African Community ◽  
The Common ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Direct Concern

This article explores the prospects for co-ordinated co-operative economic advance in East Africa. Its frame of reference reaches wider than simply an analysis of the 1967 Treaty.1 This broader viewpoint is important for two major reasons. In the first place, there are a number of aspects of economic interdependence which are not covered at all in the Treaty; the implication is that these will be of no direct concern to the institutions of the new East African Community (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania). For example, the level of the external tariffs of the three countries is obviously crucial to the operation of the Common Market; among other reasons, this is because the maximum permissible transfer tax is defined in terms of the external tariff. Yet the committee responsible for setting external tariffs is not linked in any direct way with the institutional set-up in Arusha; it seems likely that decisions of the tariff committee will not be subject to discussion or appeal through these community institutions.

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