Cross-Border Interactions and Regionalism

Abstract

“Africa is not a country,” warn the authors of a recent report meant to entice Polish companies to engage with the “rising” African continent.1 The reminder would seem totally unwarranted but for the enticing blueprints that presume that an integrated single African market is within reach. The establishment by 2017 of a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), we are also told, will be followed by a Continental Customs Union (CCU) two years later.2 Meanwhile, Africa keeps being described as a continent deeply segmented, yet integrated through “a significant amount of cross-border trade [that] does take place … [through] informal channels and is [therefore] not measured in official statistics.”