Regional Integration and Trade Liberalization in SubSaharan Africa

Leading economists in the area of trade policy and international economics from within and outside the region of SubSaharan Africa have collaborated on a timely set of issues pertinent to Africa's place in and its impact on the world economy. This third volume examines schemes for regional integration, and the successes and failures of each of these specific projects to examine the potential pitfalls facing cooperation and integration in Africa. The project found that, after over 30 years of experimentation, SubSaharan Africa's romance with regional integration remains unabated. Previous and existing regional integration efforts, however, have generally achieved little success. It is not immediately clear that country-level trade liberalization attempts (induced by various structural adjustment programmes - SAPs) are consistent with the various countries. The project attempted answers to the following questions: - What drives regional integration in Africa? - How would recent changes in trade barriers and outward orientation affect such efforts? - What are the links between regional integration and trade liberalization in the African context? - How and to what extent would SAP-induced trade liberalization hinder or enhance regional integration in Africa? By bringing together many experienced researchers and their research centres, the project will help build a critical mass of literature.