Global Value Chains (GVCs), referring to the quickly expanding internationalization of production networks, have become a central topic in trade and development policy. With the entry into force of AfCFTA in May 2019, and some progress towards its full enactment, as well as the possibility of new trade agreements between AfCFTA and the EU, the potential of a large common market in Africa for increased GVC-related trade, both within Africa and between Africa and the EU, are of great interest to research and policy. To gauge the potential implications and distributional side-eects of AfCFTA for GVCs, it is, at least to some degree, instructive to study the eects of smaller eorts of regional integration and the creation of common markets in Africa, as has been the case in East Africa with the East African Community (EAC).