African leaders met on Sunday to launch a continental free-trade zone that if successful would unite 1.3 billion people, create a $3.4 trillion economic bloc and usher in a new era of development.

Rwandan president Paul Kagame says the African Union could become a strong body as the European Union despite well documented hurdles.

Regional integration in Africa has made tremendous strides. But the work is not done.

"The Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in Africa group together individual countries in subregions for the purposes of achieving greater economic integration."

After four years of talks, African leaders announced an agreement to form a 55-nation trade bloc.

"COMESA (as defined by its Treaty) was established ‘as an organisation of free independent sovereign states which have agreed to co-operate in developing their natural and human resources for the good of all their people’ and as such it has a wide-ranging series of objectives which necessarily include in its priorities the promotion of peace and security in the region."

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is a free trade area with twenty-one member states stretching from Tunisia to Eswatini. COMESA was formed in December 1994, replacing a Preferential Trade Area which had existed since 1981.

This collection of essays by various authors covers the regional blocs in Africa including COMESA, SADC and ECOWAS. It compares and contrasts them with the EU, ASEAN and MERCOSUR.