Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CAEMC) / Communaute Economique et Monetaire d’Afrique Centrale (CEMAC)

CONTACT DETAILS

BP 969, Bangui, Central African Republic
Tel: +236 61 0922
Fax: +236 61 2135

HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS

The Central African Economic and Customs Union (UDEAC) was founded on 8 December 1964 by the Brazzaville Treaty of 1964 (revised in 1974) and became operational on 1 January 1966.

In March 1994 the six UDEAC leaders signed a treaty for the establishment of an Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), which was to promote the process of sub-regional integration within the framework of an economic union and a monetary union.

Institutions that have already been planned include a common parliament and common court of justice. However, half of the members of CEMAC still have to ratify the founding treaty of 1994.

The African Economic Community (AEC) has established contact with CEMAC and views it as being very active in regional integration. A joint AEC/Economic and Social Commission (ECOSOC) mission visited the organisation in August 1998 and found its success in mobilising resources for its programme development and implementation to be of particular interest to all the regional economic communities in Africa. However, at its June 1999 meeting, the AEC’s ECOSOC again emphasised that it viewed the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) as being the major regional economic community for the Central African region due to the comprehensiveness of its membership. Prior to the serious problems it had to deal with since the early 1990s, ECCAS had in fact been in the process of concluding a modality for programme harmonisation and co-ordination with CEMAC.

RELEVANT TREATIES/PROTOCOLS ETC

Treaty establishing the African Economic Community
Protocol on Relations between the African Economic Community and Regional Economic Communities

GENERAL COMMENTS

No formal contact exists between CEMAC and South Africa.