Obstacles to Expanding Intra-African Trade

Roberto Longo and Khalid Sekkat

No 169, OECD Development Centre Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: This paper analyses the determinants of intra-African trade (IAT) to assess the potential obstacles to greater sub-regional trade. Both economic and political arguments suggest that increased IAT can foster a regional take-off. Trade linkages in Africa, however, are very weak. Official statistics show that IAT is a small fraction of each country’s total trade and has remained roughly constant over the years. The main obstacles suggested in the literature include trade policy, insufficient infrastructure, non-convertibility of currencies, ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity and very high political instability. In order to rank such potential obstacles, the study develops an extended gravity model, using a new panel dataset for 41 African countries during the 1980-97 period. Bilateral trade flows between African countries and their major trading partners have been used to identify specific obstacles to IAT. Besides traditional gravity variables (income, income per capita ... Ce Document technique analyse les déterminants des échanges intra-africains afin d’évaluer les obstacles potentiels à leur expansion. Celle-ci pourrait favoriser le décollage économique du continent, comme le montrent les arguments tant économiques que politiques. Les relations commerciales sont toutefois extrêmement réduites en Afrique. D’après les statistiques officielles, le commerce intra-africain ne représente qu’une faible part des échanges totaux de chaque pays et est resté à peu près constant dans le temps. Les divers travaux identifient les principaux obstacles, notamment la politique commerciale, le manque d’infrastructures, la non convertibilité des monnaies, la diversité ethnique, culturelle et linguistique ainsi que la très grande instabilité politique. Pour évaluer l’importance respective de ces obstacles, cette étude propose un modèle gravitaire étendu reposant sur un nouvel ensemble de données couvrant 41 pays africains sur la période 1980-1997. Les flux commerciaux ...

Date: 2001-03-01
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:devaaa:169-en

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