The Economic Community of Central African States

This chapter examines the trade patterns of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) to see if the organization has lived up to its expectations and what reasons account for its performance to date. Established in 1983, ECCAS consists of ten countries in Central Africa. Together, these countries accounted for 20.4% of the land area of Africa, 14.4% of its population, and 8.8% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019. At its formation it was expected to enhance intraregional trade among members. However, examination of its trade flows shows that very little has changed in that direction since its formation. For example, in 1995 only 1.5% of ECCAS’ export trade occurred within itself. In 2019, it was still 1.6%. With import trade, it was only 3.2% in 1995 and 2.8% in 2019. About 90% of total trade has been in primary commodities. However, as a result of a cycle of violence, civil wars, and political instability, the ECCAS was moribund for 15 years. When both international and domestic entities became concerned about this situation, the pressure that was brought to bear upon the group to resuscitate itself caused it to move toward security and stability concerns even though it did not drop its original trade mission. This reorientation toward security and stability became exploited by governments that were themselves previously insecure to perpetuate their own dictatorial rules and power to the detriment of economic well-being and trade improvement of their countries. The result is that the ECCAS remains the weakest of the regional trade agreements (RTAs) that have been recognized by the African Union (AU).