Animal and Animal Products Trade in Africa

Abstract

Africa has the potential for increasing livestock production and exports but faces several production and international trade constraints. To promote international trade, new rules and regulations have been established under the Agriculture Agreements of the World Trade Organization that African countries can take advantage of to expand their export trade. This paper reviews African trade in animal and animal products in view of these new developments. It reveals that there has been significant progress in trade liberalization through the removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers to agricultural trade. However, this has not been translated into an expansion of export trade. Africa is still a net importer of animal and animal products and is continuously depleting its meagre financial resources to pay for imports. The extent, therefore, to which African countries can benefit fully from concessions and a liberal trade environment will depend on how well they fulfil the sanitary rules for international trade in animal and animal products established by the World Organization for Animal Health-WOAH.