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GTAP Resources: Resource Display

GTAP Resource #5766

"Investigating how realising export potential through regional trade can contribute toward economic development in Africa"
by Ferreira, Lorainne and Ermie Steenkamp


Abstract
Greater regional trade integration has been a policy priority in Africa for many years, yet intra-regional trade on the continent is among the lowest in the world. Trade has the potential to be a powerful driver for the region’s development in increasing productivity, creating quality jobs and spearheading industrialization. However, many obstacles to trade in Africa remain, including high trade cost and insufficient market information. As such, being able to identify promising, on-the-ground trade opportunities could help to clear one of the most fundamental and serious hurdles to regional expansion in Africa, which is the lack of information about trade opportunities. It would also provide policymakers and other stakeholders with a firmer foundation on which to base their regional negotiations and collaboration efforts. Using international market selection techniques (such as the Decision Support Model), to identify intra-regional trade opportunities between the 26 Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) countries, taking into account each country’s import demand and export supply, 334 matched trade opportunities have been identified between the 26-TFTA countries, of which nearly 70% are untapped. This brings me to the question that if these specific (importer-product-exporter) matched trade opportunities could be realized to some extent, what would the economic and developmental impact be on the countries concerned? To increase intra-regional trade among the TFTA countries, tariff and non-tariff barriers between the relevant countries need to be reduced to result in certain trade gains. The study will apply the MIRAGRODEP model to evaluate the potential effects if the identified trade matches could be realised. This type of analysis will enable policymakers to take a more proactive approach in their actions and recommendations by targeting specific opportunities.


Resource Details (Export Citation) GTAP Keywords
Category: 2019 Conference Paper
Status: Published
By/In: Presented at the 22nd Annual Conference on Global Economic Analysis, Warsaw, Poland
Date: 2019
Version:
Created: Ferreira, L. (4/13/2019)
Updated: Ferreira, L. (6/16/2019)
Visits: 488
- Dynamic modeling
- Economic development
- Economic growth
- Africa (East)
- Africa (Southern)


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