![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
In this article, we engage with contemporary debates about South-South regionalism as spaces to advance collective development agendas. Our starting point is recent scholarship emphasizing regions as important political spaces where new development possibilities are being conceived in a changing global order. We build upon the emphasis this literature places on regions as sites of policy innovation but argue that insufficient attention has been paid to regional institutional dynamics. We explore these issues with reference to the East African Community (EAC) and its decision in March 2016 to ‘phase-out’ second-hand clothing imports, a decision which was soon abandoned by the majority of EAC states (the exception being Rwanda), following opposition from the US. While the EAC served as a crucial forum to conceive and promote this policy, we argue that its institutional foundations proved insufficient to produce the level of regional coordination necessary to ensure its implementation and to withstand external pressure. In this way, we also challenge the prevailing logic that portrays regional institutions in Africa as ‘empty spaces’ by both demonstrating the role of the EAC as a site of policy development and its institutional dynamics in shaping political outcomes.
Acknowledgements
Previous versions of this article were presented at the Development Studies Association Conference, University of Manchester (June 2018), the International Politics Research Seminar, Department of Politics – University of York (December 2018) and the European International Studies Association Annual Conference, Sofia University (September 2019). We would like to thank the panel and audience at these events, alongside the anonymous reviews, for their insightful comments and feedback.
Disclosure statement
No potential competing interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 We are careful not to equate agency with power and influence but instead define it in social constructivist terms (see Murray-Evans, Citation2015). Agency then can be defined then as the capacity of actors to interpret and navigate their uncertain and often changing external environment (ibid; see also Hay, 2004, pp. 63-64).
2 South Sudan also joined the EAC in April 2016. However, according to insider accounts, beyond official summitry and meetings, South Sudan has yet to actively participate in the regional integration process (Interview 26: Regional Advisor – EAC Development Partner, May 2018, via phone call).
3 An official from the Kenyan government noted in an interview that they believed that ‘memories of mistrust’ and fears that Kenya will come to dominate the EAC still lingered across the region in the present day (Interview 08: Senior Official – Kenyan Government: State Department for East African Community Integration, July 2017, Nairobi).
4 Implementation of the deeper forms of economic integration associated with the EAC’s 2010 common market protocol and 2013 monetary union protocol have also been impeded for these very reasons.
5 Such proposals were referenced in a media interview by the EABC’s former chairperson Kassim Omar. See: https://www.trademarkea.com/news/we-can-produce-competitive-products-eabc-chairperson/.
6 Interview 06: Representative – Kenya Association of Manufacturers, June 2017, Nairobi.
7 Interview 11: Regional Policy Expert, July 2017, Nairobi.
8 These recommendations are paraphrased within the 33rd EAC Council of Ministers meeting report (EAC, 2016b).
9 Interview 24: Representative - Rwanda Private Sector Federation, October 2017, via phone call.
10 Eligibility for AGOA is determined using the World Bank’s classification of a ‘lesser developed country’ (Gross National Product per capita of less than $1,500).
11 Authors own calculations, source: https://agoa.info/data/apparel-trade.html (accessed 2 April 2020).
12 Interview 05: Regional Policy Expert, June 2017, Nairobi.
13 An overview of the EAC Secretariat’s findings can be found in the 33rd EAC Council of Ministers report (EAC, 2016b, pp. 31-32).
14 Interview 06: Representative – Kenya Association of Manufacturers, June 2017, Nairobi; Interview 21: Official – EAC Secretariat, October 2017, via phone call.
15 Interview 21: Official – EAC Secretariat, October 2017, via phone call.
16 Interview 06: Representative – Kenya Association of Manufacturers, June 2017, Nairobi; Interview 26: former Governing Council member - East African Civil Society Organisations Forum, June 2021, via Zoom; Interview 27: Governing Council member - East African Civil Society Organisations Forum, July 2021, via Zoom
17 Interview 06: Representative – Kenya Association of Manufacturers, June 2017, Nairobi.
18 Burundi was not placed under review as its AGOA eligibility had previously been revoked in 2015.
19 Transcripts of evidence submissions can be found here: https://agoa.info/downloads/agoa-out-of-cycle-reviews.html
20 In a letter to the USTR’s Trade Policy Staff Committee in August 2017, SMART highlighted the discrepancies between the testimony of the EAC Secretariat at the USTR review hearing in July 2017, where it was claimed that 2016 tariff increases on used clothing were simply a ‘realignment’ of existing duty rates, and the EAC’s draft strategy for the phase-out (EAC, 2017a), which outlined the intention to increase regional duties to $5000/ton by 2018. Available at: https://www.smartasn.org/SMARTASN/assets/File/advocacy/smart_comments_agoa_review.pdf.
21 Interview 06: Representative – Kenya Association of Manufacturers, June 2017, Nairobi.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Peter O’Reilly
Peter O'Reilly is Lecturer in International Relations and Politics at Liverpool John Moores University. His research broadly focuses on the politics of regionalism and trade governance in Africa. In 2019, he completed his PhD at the University of York, where he examined how changing conceptions of development have been both articulated through and constrained by the institutional and discursive landscape of the East African Community.
Tony Heron
Tony Heron is Professor of International Political Economy. He is currently serving as a Parliamentary Academic Fellow to the UK House of Commons International Trade Committee. Tony is the author of three books and numerous articles in journals including the European Journal of International Relations, the Review of International Political Economy, New Political Economy, the Journal of Common Market Studies, Third World Quarterly and Global Policy.