Africana Periodical Literature 
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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | Regional Integration in Eastern and Southern Africa |
| Author: | Schweickert, Rainer |
| Year: | 1996 |
| Periodical: | Africa Insight |
| Volume: | 26 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 48-56 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | East Africa Southern Africa |
| Subjects: | regional economic relations trade policy international trade Economics and Trade Inter-African Relations |
| Abstract: | Among the policies which can be blamed for sub-Saharan Africa's poor economic performance trade policy deserves special attention. Most African economies followed an inward-oriented, import substitution strategy, supplemented by the widespread use of tariff and non-tariff barriers to discourage external competition. Regional integration is one way to escape this inward-orientation/economic decline trap. The working hypothesis of the present article is that one must, however, be rather sceptical of the potential of regional integration schemes for development in the case of eastern and southern African countries. The article tests this hypothesis by comparing the potential gains from different types of integration; by reviewing the experience of the PTA (Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern African States), a south-south type of integration (integration among low-income countries), up to 1990; and by speculating on the potential of north-south integration (integration among low-income and high-income countries) in the 1990s as a result of South Africa's emergence as a new player in the regional integration game, particularly in the SADC and the SACU (Southern African Customs Union). Notes, ref. |
