Abstract
This paper explores the patterns of bilateral trade in Africa as a whole, and trade relationships within four regional trading blocs: COMESA, ECOWAS, SADC and ECCAS. Common network statistics are used to characterise and compare the structure of these regional trade arrangements in Africa, and network positions of countries both in the overall African trade network and within trading blocs. The analysis shows that the African trade link network has a star-like structure with larger economies such as South Africa, Nigeria, Angola, Morocco, Cameroon, Algeria and Tunisia at the core, and smaller economies at the periphery. Further, the four trading blocs exhibit various levels of network cohesion. ECOWAS as the oldest trading bloc ranks highest in most network cohesion indicators, followed by COMESA and SADC. ECCAS consistently ranks lowest. Finer grained analysis however reveals a few surprises.
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