Community of Sahel-Saharan States

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**Community of Sahel-Saharan States**

Headquarters	Tripoli, Libya
Membership	23 member states
Official languages	? English, French, Arabic, Portuguese
Secretary General	Mohamed Al-Madani Al-Azhari
Established - Signed - Ratified	4 February 1998 ?
Official website	http://www.cen-sad.org/

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CEN-SAD or the Community of Sahel-Saharan States aims to create a free trade area. There are questions with regard to whether its level of economic integration qualifies it under the Enabling clause.

CEN-SAD was established in February 1998 by six countries, but since then its membership has grown to 23. One of its main goals is to achieve economic unity through the implementation of the free movement of people and goods in order to make the area occupied by member states a free trade area. At the international level, CEN-SAD gained observer status at the UN General Assembly in 2001 and concluded association and cooperation accords with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) as well as with UN specialized agencies and institutions such as UNDP, WHO, UNESCO, FAO, and the Permanent Interstate Committee of Drought Control in the Sahel.

All CEN-SAD member countries are also participating in other African economic unions, that have the aim to create a common African Economic Community. The envisioned Free Trade Area of CEN-SAD would be hard to practically implement, because it is overlapping with the envisioned Customs Unions of ECOWAS, ECCAS and COMESA and other trade blocs more advanced in their integration.