The Determinants of Trade Costs in the East African Community

Sheila Mwendwa Kaminchia ()
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Sheila Mwendwa Kaminchia: University of Nottingham, Postal: School of Economics, Sir Clive Granger Building, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD

Journal of Economic Integration, 2019, vol. 34, issue 1, 38-85

Abstract: This paper assesses the East African Community’s (EAC) effectiveness in integrating member countries by lowering total bilateral trade costs. First, information is provided on the size and distribution of bilateral trade costs among 16 manufacturing industries over the period 1990~2012 for a sample comprising five EAC countries and 87 of their trade partners. The estimates indicate that it costs on average three times more for an EAC country to trade manufactured goods with another EAC country than to trade those goods domestically. The estimates also indicate that it costs on average eight times more for an EAC country to trade manufactured goods with a non-EAC country than to trade those goods domestically. This paper then shows the importance of natural and policyrelated factors in determining the trade costs.

Keywords: Trade costs; Gravity; East African Community; Trade integration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:integr:0763

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