The desirability and necessity of African economic integration is largely not in dispute. However, despite the support from African governments, progress in African regional economic integration has been slow. This commentary summarises discussions held at the recent Tralac Annual Conference 2016 with a theme “Towards Rules-based Governance in African Trade and Integration?”.

In this invited Commentary, Wandile Sihlobo & Tinashe Kapuya point out that global commodity markets were beset by fears of a major economic slowdown in the Chinese economy, following a 30% loss of value in the Chinese Composite Index as well as disappointing annual GDP growth figures which projected less than the expected 7%. China, […]