Regional Integration, Trade and Industry in Africa

Abstract

With the advent of the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), regional economic integration in Africa has captured international attention and raised high hopes. In the new book "Regional Integration, Trade and Industry in Africa", the present state of economic integration on the continent is explored in the context of global trade and plans to foster industrialization. This policy brief summarises the book's main findings.The CFTA project has the potential to overcome major shortcomings of regional economic integration so far:• The market size even in the bigger traditional Regional Economic Communities (RECs) remains below minimum efficient scale for key industries.

Evolution of trade and productive integration in Latin America, 1995–2015: an input-output analysis

“…The framework of the theory of economic integration as laid out by Jacob Viner (1950) stems from the classical perspective of searching for the most efficient use of resources, emphasizing the static effects of the creation and deviation of trade caused by the liberalization of commerce (Asche, 2021). As the theory develops, particularly with the emergence of the so-called "New Trade Theory" (Krugman, 1980), the potential for different dynamic effects of integration have been considered (increase of investment expenditure, sustainable increase of demand, consolidation of production and increase of its specialization, improvement of the organization and management of production and production technology, rationalization of territorial distribution and utilization of resources, increase of production efficiency, creation of economic growth, etc.)…”