African Economic Community

The AEC founded through the Abuja Treaty, signed in 1991 and entered into force in 1994[2] is envisioned to be created in six stages: as of September 2007

1 not all members participating yet 2 telecommunications, transport and energy - proposed 3 sensitive goods to be covered from 2012

The RECs consist primarily of trade blocs and, in some cases, some political and military cooperation.

Due to this high proportion of overlap it is likely that some states with several memberships will eventually drop out of one or more RECs.

Joined later: 1 The UMA (Arab Maghreb Union) does not participate in the AEC so far, because of opposition by Morocco Venn diagrams illustrating interlocking relationship overlaps: Other African regional blocs, not participating in the AEC framework (many of them predating AEC) are: Their membership is as follows: Joined later: Joined later: 1 Only African GAFTA members are listed.