The Cotonou Process and the Issue of Overlapping Memberships in Regional Trade Agreements in Eastern and Southern Africa

The Cotonou Partnership Agreement of 23rd June 2000 marked a significant shift in the Post-Lome ACIP-EU trade relations. In its framework, the EU and ACP countries are negotiating reciprocal economic partnership agreements (EPAs) in the form of free trade agreements between the EU and ACP countries by 2008. However, this new direction provides challenges to ACP countries especially those in the Eastern and Sothern African region. Most countries in the ESA region belong to more than one RTA; some have partial or no involvement in the WTO and also have bilateral trade promoting agreements with each other. This scenario has led to the duplication and overlapping RTAS, which-to some extent-undermine regional cooperation initives among countries in the region. This paper focuses on the necessities and alternatives available to the ESA countries so as to provides a much stronger thrust as they negotiate EPAs with the EU. The paper argues that it is critical for ESA countries to harmonise their regional integration measures in the framework of a single grouping to trade with the EU. This may mean making difficult choices, for example, merging some existing regional structures and/or going as far as terminating their membership.