Trade In Africa Research Articles

Level of environmental threat posed by horticultural trade in Cactaceae.

Ornamental horticulture has been identified as an important threat to plant biodiversity and is a major pathway for plant invasions worldwide. In this context, the family Cactaceae is particularly challenging because it is considered the fifth most threatened large taxonomic group in the world; several species are among the most widespread and damaging invasive species; and Cactaceae is one of the most popular horticultural plant groups. Based on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna and the 11 largest online auction sites selling cacti, we documented the international cactus trade. To provide an in-depth look at the dynamics of the industry, we surveyed the businesses involved in the cactus trade in South Africa (a hotspot of cactus trade and invasions). We purchased seeds of every available species and used DNA barcoding to identify species to the genus level. Although <20% of this trade involved threatened species and <3% involved known invasive species, many species were identified by a common name. However, only 0.02% of the globally traded cacti were collected from wild populations. Despite a large commercial network, all South African imports (of which 15% and 1.5% were of species listed as threatened and invasive, respectively) came from the same source. With DNA barcoding, we identified 24% of the species to genus level. Based on our results, we believe that if trade restrictions are placed on the small proportion of cacti that are invasive and there is no major increase in harvesting of native populations, then the commercial trade in cactus poses a negligible environmental threat. However, there are currently no effective methods for easily identifying which cacti are traded, and both the illicit harvesting of cacti from the wild and the informal trade in invasive taxa pose on-going conservation challenges.

How Facilitating Trade would Benefit Trade in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract Despite a significant trade expansion that has been above the world average in the recent period, Sub-Saharan Africa still remains relatively marginalized in the world trading system. This paper sets out to analyze the extent to which various elements of the trade cost landscape in the sub-continent may have contributed to shape trade patterns both within the region and with the outside world. Different trade facilitation measures such as border efficiency, physical infrastructure, regulatory environment, information and communication technology, and the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index are related to bilateral trade flows in a gravity framework. The study finds, based on the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimation, that raising (raising) the quality of the trading environment of (the subcontinent) the sub-continent to the level of the world average would generate significant export gains that amount to reducing bilateral geographical distance by between 1.7 to 10.1 percent or cutting ad valorem tariff by between 1.4 and 10.2 percentage-points. The extent of the gains varies greatly across the trade facilitation measures, commodity sectors, export destinations, as well as which trading partner undertakes the corresponding reforms. These results offer a strong basis for designing targeted trade facilitation reforms that would improve Africa's international trade position in the wake of the recent success of WTO's trade negotiations.

"Por conto e peso": o comércio de marfim no Congo e Loango, séculos XV – XVII

RESUMO O artigo descreve a implantação do comércio de marfim na costa centro-ocidental africana entre 1490 e 1620. Essa região tem sido estudada do ponto de vista do comércio atlântico de escravos, mas não existem estudos dedicados ao marfim. O comércio do marfim bruto aparece na historiografia como referência passageira. Já a circulação do marfim lavrado tem sido estudada a partir de objetos encontrados nos museus europeus, ponto final de uma longa cadeia diplomática e comercial. Tomando como referência o comércio de marfim nos portos da costa do Congo e Loango, o texto estabelece o contexto africano de acesso ao marfim antes do crescimento do comércio de escravos na região, destacando sua importância no conjunto das atividades econômicas da época.

Playing Different Games: Uncertain Rules in EU–West Africa Trade Negotiations

Playing Different Games: Uncertain Rules in EU–West Africa Trade Negotiations

Aid for trade and Africa's trade performance: Evidence from bilateral trade flows with China and OECD countries

The optimism surrounding aid for trade (AfT) led scholars and practitioners to probe its link with trade performance of aid-recipient countries in Africa. In the absence of formal evaluation guidelines, most previous studies, using aggregate data, have looked into the impacts of AfT on exports and imports and found results consistent with the stated objectives of AfT. The present study investigates the nature of the link for the case of African countries using disaggregated AfT data from China and OECD member countries. The results show that flows of OECD aid to all sectors and to economic infrastructure have increased both Africa's imports from and exports to OECD countries. This finding also holds the various commodity group. The results for the components of AfT from OECD countries are mixed, with AfT for ‘trade education and training' the only component found to improve net-exports. In the case of China, the results are weak, but suggest that Chinese AfT flows to Africa have played little role in Africa's trade with China, with infrastructure and economic size of African countries being more important.

Medicinal Plant Trade in Northern Kenya: Economic Importance, Uses, and Origin1

Despite the importance of the medicinal plant trade in Africa, little is known about the existing trade in Kenya outside major urban centers. We assessed the economic importance, uses, and origins of the plants traded in two major towns in northern Kenya. We interviewed vendors, assessed volumes and prices, and collected specimen samples for identification. We also discussed with collectors and made observations on harvesting techniques and species’ relative abundance in the wild. Thirty species were found to be traded in Marsabit and Moyale towns, of which only Myrsine africana L. was collected in a forest. The seven most frequently traded species accounted for an annual volume of 5500 kg with an annual retail value of US$25,900. Several uses mentioned by vendors had not been previously reported in the literature. Interestingly, some species high in demand in major urban centers are abundant in these montane forests. Our study highlights the substantial economic importance of the medicinal plant trade in the area and the strong effect ethnicity has on plant use. While more research is needed on the previously undocumented uses of certain plant species, it seems that the trade of certain species could be further promoted.

Effect of exchange rate volatility on trade in Sub-Saharan Africa

The volatile nature of exchange rates with the advent of floating regimes has received much attention in economic research. The volatility is generally perceived as negatively affecting international trade. While theoretical predictions and empirical outcomes appear mixed, the balance seems to tilt in favour of this perception. Applying the pooled mean-group estimator of dynamic heterogeneous panels technique to data for eleven Sub-Saharan African economies over the period 1993 to 2014, this paper uncovers no significant effects of exchange rate volatility on imports. In the case of exports, however, the study finds a negative effect of volatility in the short-run, consistent with the above view, but a positive impact in the long-run.

Infrastructure, Intra-African Trade and Economic Development in Africa

La gestion de la crise infrastructurelle sera l’un des plus grands defis et l’une des plus grandes opportunites de developpement pour l’Afrique dans les decennies a venir. Le commerce intra-africain se situe a environ 12 %, tres en deca du commerce intra-regional en Europe, en Amerique du Nord et dans les pays de l’Asean avec respectivement 60 %, 40 % et 30 % (CNUCED, 2013). Meme si plusieurs raisons expliquent la faiblesse du commerce intra-regional en Afrique, la carence en infrastructure o...

Politics and Street Trading in Africa: Developing a Comparative Frame

Street trading is ubiquitous in African cities, but despite research over the last 40 years, there has been relatively little analysis of the political factors that influence the street economy. It is thus timely to examine the broader political landscape of street trading and its influence on the operations and vulnerabilities of street trade. The paper first frames concepts of street trade and the street economy, and briefly examines the political landscape in Africa. It then develops and tests an exploratory framework through which to examine the relationship of politics to street trade across three broad areas: colonial legacy and politics across borders, the top-down politics of state repression and accommodation, and the bottom-up politics of trader organisation and voice. The paper draws on extensive research by the authors in Africa and published papers to examine how history, culture and religion, governance and politics have influenced the operation of street trading across Africa today. The paper concludes that each axis of the proposed tripartite framework has merit, but that many gaps exist in understanding the relationship between politics and street trade in Africa.

Trade, Development and Industrial Policy in Africa: The Case for a Pragmatic Approach to Optimizing Policy Coherence Between Industrial Policy and the WTO Policy Space

AbstractIndustrial policy has become a new development priority for many African countries. In this context, many scholars point to the WTO and argue that a key impediment towards Africa’s successful industrialization is the narrowing of the WTO policy space. This paper challenges that argument through examining the extent to which African countries actually take into account the WTO policy space when implementing their industrial policy objectives. Through an empirical analysis of industrial policy priorities and key trade and investment laws and regulations in Kenya, Ghana and Namibia, this paper concludes that a significant policy constraint to effective industrialization in Africa is not the WTO policy space per se, but rather a lack of alignment between a country’s industrial policy objectives, trade and investment laws, and the WTO policy space.

Corporate Governance and the African Business Context: the Case of Nigeria

A robust institutional framework is essential to enable firms to function efficiently. The aspect of corporate governance investigated in this paper is the legal and societal principles and process which form the business context within which firms operate. The paper explores the challenges to firms trading in Africa arising from cultural dynamics peculiar to the continent and further explores the historical reasons for the present cultural context to business in Africa. Nigeria is presented as a special case, perhaps even an extreme case, of the challenges to corporate governance in Africa since it is perceived by many to be one of the weaker environments given its perceived levels of corruption. The paper concludes with an assessment of the likelihood of African states successfully tackling corruption in the future as the current approaches unfold over the coming years.

Volatility And Trade: The Case Of South Africa's Exports To China

Rapid economic growth propelled China to become South Africa's largest trade partner, and the recent economic slowdown in China and collapse of commodity prices threatens to reverse this trend. Previous estimations of South Africa's bilateral trade functions document strong income effects on trade, but evidence for the effects of the exchange rate and its volatility are decidedly mixed. In this paper we argue that this ambiguity is due in part to the omission of information about the level and volatility of commodity prices. We note that South Africa's exports to China are heavily concentrated in metal ores, and the practice of deflating the nominal exchange rate by either a consumer price index or deflator is a poor proxy for the commodity price movements that matter for exporters. In this paper we use quarterly data from the period 1993-2014 to estimate South Africa's bilateral export function with China using Chinese GDP, the real bilateral exchange rate, exchange rate volatility, iron ore and precious metals price indices, and their respective volatilities. We specify an error-correction model designed to model departures from, and adjustment to, the long-run equilibrium, and thereby distinguish short-run and long-run effects, and we employ the bounds testing approach of Pesaran, Shin and Smith (2001) to test for long-run cointegration among the variables. The baseline model results in large and statistically significant estimates for income and real exchange rate elasticities that are in the expected direction. The elasticity estimate for exchange-rate volatility suggests a negative but statistically insignificant effect. This ambiguity resonates with much of the literature. In our augmented models we include separate variables to capture the effects of iron ore and precious metals prices and their volatility, resulting in considerable improvement in model fit in both a static and dynamic sense. In the long run, the positive price elasticity is consistent with an upward-sloping export supply curve, and the negative and relatively elastic effect of commodity price volatility suggests an uncertainty effect that reduces exports. Importantly, the inclusion of the commodity price variables improves the precision of other estimates, increasing our confidence in a similar uncertainty effect emanating from volatility in the bilateral exchange rate. Our results highlight South Africa's continued vulnerability to the commodity price cycle. To escape this boom and bust cycle, South Africa's government must emphasize public investment and embrace structural reforms aimed at diversifying its export sector.

Empirical Assessment of Trade Engagements: Africa, China and the Maritime Belt and Road Initiative

Recent development economic literatures theorize that South-South trade and foreign investment may have a larger impact on economic growth in developing economies than North-South trade and investment, since investors from the South are more familiar with local developing markets and business practices, which increases their productivity spillovers (Aykut and Goldstein 2007). Amighini and Sanfilippo (2014) provided evidence that South-South trade and investments stimulate product diversification in light manufacturing industries such as agro processing, plastic, textile and leather production. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched in 2013, aims to create economic opportunities as well as improve and establish new trading routes between China and connected regions. This paper attempts to evaluate the degree of trade relations between China and selected African countries along the Maritime Silk Route (MSR) and further appraise the trade potentials and gains inherent for African economies through the initiative. To achieve our objective, we apply quantitative techniques in trade evaluation to enable us explore and estimate the degree and intensity of trade engagements amongst selected Sino-African silk route countries, identify the trade opportunities and potentials, which are critical for increased trade engagements between both parties along the route and to explore some of the channels through which the maritime route can impact on investment, trade and economic growth in Africa. Findings from the analysis indicate that while the degree of trade integration is unbalanced and favourable to China relative to Africa, the trade pattern and structure are observed to be more complementary than competitive, and this provides Africa with ample opportunity to engage in product upgrading and diversification, critical for structural transformation.

РЕГИОНАЛЬНАЯ ИНТЕГРАЦИЯ В АФРИКЕ: ДИНАМИКА ВНУТРИРЕГИОНАЛЬНОЙ ТОРГОВЛИ 1990-2015 ГГ

The paper studies the changing role of regional communities in the formation of trade flows of intra-regional trade of Africa in the last 25 years. It’s revealed that the growth of intra-regional trade turnover of the majority of regional integration groupings reduction of the share in world’s trade and the growth of intra-regional trade turnover. Commodity structure of integration groupings in intra-regional trade is more diversified, than in international trade.

The effects of exchange rate changes on Sub-Saharan Africa trade

This study investigates the impact of exchange rate changes on imports, exports and trade balance in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between exchange rate changes and imports, albeit the degree of responsiveness was extremely low. These were inconsistent with economic theory and can be attributed to the fact that many African countries largely depend on imports, and tend to be invariant to exchange rate changes. Hence, a depreciation of their exchange rates may have little or no effects on imports. The study recommends that SSA authorities draw up strategies and programs that will make the economies less reliant on imports. The significant negative relationship found between exchange rate changes and exports suggests that the policy of exchange rate depreciation may not have the desired effects of boosting exports. The study found no significant relationship between exchange rate changes and trade balance.

Trade, Development and Industrial Policy in Africa: The Case for a Pragmatic Approach to Optimizing Policy Coherence Between Industrial Policy and the WTO Policy Space

Industrial policy has become a new development priority for many African countries. In this context, many scholars point to the WTO and argue that a key impediment towards Africa’s successful industrialization is the narrowing of the WTO policy space. This paper challenges that argument through examining the extent to which African countries actually take into account the WTO policy space when implementing their industrial policy objectives. Through an empirical analysis of industrial policy priorities and key trade and investment laws and regulations in Kenya, Ghana and Namibia, this paper concludes that a significant policy constraint to effective industrialization in Africa is not the WTO policy space, but rather a lack of alignment between a country’s industrial policy objectives, trade and investment laws, and the WTO policy space.

Reconnection to your Ancestral Origin: A Case Study of Bimbia Slave TradeVillage

Slave trade and Slavery in Africa has not only existed throughout the continent for the past decades but it is still being witnessed today in different forms. Slave trade and slavery are both a crime against Humanity and a deep moral error. It has destroyed the lives of millions of Africans and the effect has continued to be felt by their descendants even today and all of those affected have lost their history. Some companies in the United States of America have been carrying out DNA test in an effort to try and unite those affected with their ancestral root. Motherland Facilitations Africa, a non-profit making organization in Cameroon and the Government of Cameroon through its Ministry of Culture have been working together to see the successful reconnection of these African- American with their families. Bimbiam, the slave trade port has seen the rehabilitation of the port through the collaboration of Cameroon’s Ministry of Culture and the American Embassy in Yaounde.

Myths of Commonwealth Betrayal: UK–Africa Trade Before and After Brexit

This article critically interrogates claims that a British exit from the European Union (EU) (Brexit) will create opportunities for the UK to escape the EU’s apparent protectionism and cumbersome internal politics in order to pursue a more liberal and globalist trade agenda based on the Commonwealth. Taking a historical view of UK and EU trade relations with the Commonwealth in Africa, the author highlights the way in which the incorporation of the majority of Commonwealth states into the EU’s preferential trading relationships has reconfigured ties between the UK and its former colonies over time. Further, the author suggests that the EU’s recent attempts to realise a vision for an ambitious set of free trade agreements in Africa—the Economic Partnership Agreements—was disrupted not by EU protectionism or internal politics but rather by African resistance to the EU’s liberal agenda for reciprocal tariff liberalisation and regulatory harmonisation. The UK therefore faces a complex challenge if it is to disentangle its trade relations with Africa from those of the EU and to forge its own set of ambitious free trade agreements with African Commonwealth partners.

The Impact of Commodity Terms of Trade in Africa

The sharp increase in commodity prices that began in the early 2000s resulted in a marked improvement in terms of trade for Africa. Since then, commodity exporters’ terms of trade have declined despite a very moderate recovery in mid-2016. Terms of trade still remain higher than they were at the turn of the century, giving the false impression that conditions still favor Africa. The evidence, however, suggests that the commodity-driven prosperity has ended or, at best, has been interrupted for a long time to come. Some of these losses have not been realized fully because of unsustainable macroeconomic and foreign borrowing policies. These policies cannot be sustained, and the actual losses will catch up even if terms of trade do not deteriorate further. The complacency engendered by the relatively high gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates is misplaced, given the very rapid rate of population growth in Africa both in absolute terms and as compared to most other regions of the world. On the basis of the analysis presented in this article, a further decline or even stable terms of trade can be expected to have a significant negative effect on African economies. Many policymakers believe they are choosing between continued growth on the basis of present policies, or painful adjustment, usually imposed from outside. However, adjustment is inevitable. The real choice is between orderly and internationally supported correction and disorderly and disruptive crisis if current policies continue. It is imperative for the African countries, both highly concentrated exporters and more diversified economies, to focus on macroeconomic sustainability. In today’s adverse circumstances, and particularly given the fragile fiscal positions and mounting debts of many African countries, these policies are only possible if the economy adjusts to a sustainable path. Time is of the essence, and a conscious break with a policy of short-sighted comfort is required.

THE ROLE OF SADC IN BOOSTING DOMESTIC, REGIONAL, CONTINENTAL AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE

The role of regional economic communities in the development of trade in Africa is widely recognised. Currently, intra-African trade stands at 10 per cent. This is in sharp contrast to other developing regions of the world. In Asia and Latin America, the levels of intra-trade are 50 and 26 per cent, respectively. There are a number of reasons accounting for the low level of intra-African trade, including the weak mandate given to regional economic communities to monitor and enforce the commitments assumed by countries under regional trade agreements. The lack of integration has negatively impacted on African countries and affected their ability to attract foreign direct investment commensurate with their development needs. Had African countries been less exposed to external markets, they would have been minimally affected by the global financial crisis. The importance of boosting intra-African trade was highlighted by Africa’s Heads of State and Government when they devoted this year’s summit to this theme. In the run-up to the summit, the African Union Commission released a study that underscored the importance of regional economic communities in the process of economic integration in Africa. Currently, SADC member states are in the process of implementing the SADC Trade Protocol, which would create a fully-fledged free trade area and later a customs union, and at the same time engaged in tripartite negotiations aimed at merging the three (SADC, COMESA and the EAC) regional configurations. They are also engaged in the EPA negotiations with the European Union, which would create a free trade area and also the Doha negotiations under the auspices of the WTO. The main objective of this article is to estimate SADC countries’ bilateral trade potential, which may result in the improvements in trade facilitation.