International Trade Geographic Structure of African Regional Economic Communities

African countries and their regional economic communities are trying to achieve integration through free trade, creation of customs unions and organization of common markets. International trade is a means for acquisition of fixed assets, equipment, materials and processed goods that are critical to economic growth. In this regard, African countries and the institutions of their integration entities must work to expand the volume of total trade, as well as the trade flows between each other, using the means of trade liberalization. The paper analyses the dynamics of trade flows and the trends in trade patterns of African countries and regional economic communities, with special focus on intra-regional and intra-continental trade. The study presents the main import and export destinations both in continental and global terms and makes an attempt to outline the trends of African countries’ and regional economic communities’ direction of international trade for the period 2003-2012.