New Regionalism in Africa: Waves of Integration

The international trading environment is shaped by the so-called ‘new regionalism’, an increasingly complex phenomenon with a rapid proliferation of Regional Integration Agreements (RIAs), overlapping memberships, deeper integration efforts and trade blocs signed between developing and industrialised countries. This article will address the following questions: Whathappened with African Trade Integration in the last 60 years? Has African regionalism been a failure? What factors led to some unfavourable developments? How has Africa been infl uenced by the phenomenon of new regionalism? What are the barriers to increased effective regional integration?