A regional economic partnership agreement between SADC and the European Union within the Cotonou framework : opportunities and challenges for the political economy of regional integration in SADC

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:One of the most notable features of the relations between the European Union andSADC is the current reconfiguration of their trading architecture as encapsulated inthe Cotonou Agreement. Such a process of change can be shown to have inevitablybeen the result of policy shifts, which are salient characteristics of a global politicaleconomy, whose ontology is embedded theoretically in neo-liberalism. Nevertheless,any process of change in the structure of global trading relations has the logicaloutcome of systemically imposing either challenges or opportunities, and in somecases both, on the participants of that structure.This study represents a scholarly attempt at creating a lucid and descriptiveembodiment of the challenges and opportunities involved for SADC in the negotiationand implementation of a Regional Economic Partnership Agreement (REPA) with theEuropean Union. These challenges and opportunities, obligatory within a REPAframework are theoretically pronounced in as far as they shape the political economyof regional integration in SADe. The process of negotiating such a multifacetedagreement with a sophisticated partner, calls for institutional and negotiatingcapacity. Undoubtedly, such capacity is beyond the membership of SADe. The pointis also emphasized that the process of trade liberalization, ingrained in a REPA willcreate a complex and difficult interface with the current SADC initiatives underway todeepen regional integration. Tellingly, these would contradict the cautiousdevelopmental and bottom up approach taken by SADC in its drive for regionalintegration.Conversely, this study concedes that a REPA with the EU holds a number of novelopportunities for SADC because such a process would provide scope for thefundamental restructuring of the SADC economies. The competitive pressuresthrough decreased levels of protection within a REPA can create an upwardconvergence of low performing industries in the region. These, amongst others areimportant aspects if the political economy of SADC is to move into a virtuous cycle ofdeeper integration and ultimate insertion in the global economy.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University