The Effects of the Tripartite Free Trade Area: Towards a New Economic Geography in Southern, Eastern and Northern Africa?

Andrew Mold and Rodgers Mukwaya

No 2015-04, Discussion Papers from University of Nottingham, CREDIT

Abstract: This study evaluates the economic impact of the proposed COMESA-SADC-EAC Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) on 26 African countries. It uses the global trade analysis project (GTAP) computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and database to measure the static effects of the establishment of the TFTA on industrial production, trade flows and consumption in the tripartite region. The results indicate a significant increase in intra-regional exports as a result of tariff elimination, boosting intra-regional trade by 29 percent. Particularly encouraging is the fact that the sectors benefiting most are manufacturing ones, such as light and heavy manufacturing, and processed food. Concerns have been raised that industrial production in the TFTA would concentrate in the countries with highest productivity levels - namely, Egypt and South Africa. Simulation results suggest that these fears are exaggerated, with little evidence of concentration of industries in the larger countries.

Keywords: Tripartite free trade area; EAC; COMESA; SADC (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr, nep-cmp, nep-geo and nep-int
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/credit/documents/papers/2015/15-04.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:not:notcre:15/04

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from University of Nottingham, CREDIT School of Economics University of Nottingham University Park Nottingham NG7 2RD. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Hilary Hughes ().