IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/pugtwp/332288.html

Deepening Regional Integration in Africa: A Computable General Equilibrium Assessment of the Establishment of a Continental Free Trade Area followed by a Continental Customs Union

Author

Listed:
  • Karingi, Stephen
  • Mevel, Simon

Abstract

In January 2012, the 18th African Union (AU) Summit of African Heads of States and Governments was held in Addis Ababa. At this occasion, a major decision was taken with the adoption of the AU Action Plan for “Boosting Intra-African Trade and the Establishment of a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA)”. This attests of a strong desire to deepen regional integration in Africa. Moreover, the AU Member States expressed the wish to see the share of intra-African trade doubling within the next 10 years. While a tentative date of 2017 has been agreed for the formation of a CFTA, the Abuja Treaty, signed in 1993, specifically states the requirement for establishing a continent-wide Customs Union by 2019. This paper first reviews the main trade-related constraints faced by Africa today. Then, it explores in what extent the formation of a CFTA followed by a Continental Customs Union (CCU) would help Africa to overcome these limitations and to fulfill AU Member States’ objective in terms of intra-African trade stimulation. The analysis is conducted using the MIRAGE Computable General Equilibrium model. Our findings show that, although a CFTA would significantly contribute to increasing trade and its sophistication within the African continent, the removal of strictly tariff barriers would not be sufficient to double the share of intra-African trade at the horizon 2022. This goal could only be achieved if complementary non-tariff measures aiming at easing trade, such as, decreasing the length of customs procedures and port handling, are adopted. While the formation of a CCU would not result in any additional increase of the share of intra-African trade, as compared to a CFTA, it would, however, significantly promote African exports to third countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Karingi, Stephen & Mevel, Simon, 2012. "Deepening Regional Integration in Africa: A Computable General Equilibrium Assessment of the Establishment of a Continental Free Trade Area followed by a Continental Customs Union," Conference papers 332288, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:pugtwp:332288
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/332288/files/5958.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sébastien Jean & David Laborde & Will Martin, 2008. "Choosing Sensitive Agricultural Products in Trade Negotiations," Working Papers 2008-18, CEPII research center.
    2. repec:wbk:wboper:26907 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:wbk:wbpubs:5907 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Bouët, Antoine & Valin, Hugo & Dimaranan, Betina, 2010. "Modeling the global trade and environmental impacts of biofuel policies," IFPRI discussion papers 1018, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. repec:wbk:wboper:27151 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:wbk:wboper:16303 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Perez Onono & Francis Omondi & Alice Mwangangi, 2024. "Impacts of Regional Integration and Market Liberalization on Bilateral Trade Balances of Selected East African Countries: Potential Implications of the African Continental Free Trade Area," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-21, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dimaranan, Betina V. & Laborde, David, 2012. "Ethanol Trade Policy and Global Biofuel Mandates," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126869, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Arndt Feuerbacher & Jonas Luckmann, Humboldt-University of Berlin, 2017. "Modelling field operations in a computable general equilibrium model: An application to labour shortages in Bhutan," EcoMod2017 10464, EcoMod.
    3. Bouët, Antoine & Laborde Debucquet, David, 2008. "The potential cost of a failed Doha Round," Issue briefs 56, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Bureau, Jean-Christophe & Treguer, David & Valin, Hugo, 2010. "Biofuel Programs And Farm Support: New Tools For Old Policies?," 14th ICABR Conference, June 16-18, 2010, Ravello, Italy 188081, International Consortium on Applied Bioeconomy Research (ICABR).
    5. Bouet, Antoine & Laborde, David, . "Eight Years of Doha Trade Talks: Where Do We Stand?," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 11(2), pages 1-22.
    6. Mevel, Simon & Moll de Alba, Jaime & Oulmane, Nassim, 2015. "Regional trade integration and trade facilitation as a pro-industrialization policy tool: the case of North Africa’s countries," Conference papers 332590, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    7. Bouet, Antoine & Laborde, David, 2008. "The potential cost of a failed Doha Round:," Issue briefs 56, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Oladosu, Gbadebo & Kline, Keith, 2013. "A dynamic simulation of the ILUC effects of biofuel use in the USA," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1127-1139.
    9. Piroli, Giuseppe & Rajcaniova, Miroslava & Ciaian, Pavel & Kancs, d׳Artis, 2015. "From a rise in B to a fall in C? SVAR analysis of environmental impact of biofuels," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 921-930.
    10. Bosello, F. & Eboli, F. & Parrado, R., 2011. "Climate change impacts in the Mediterranean: a CGE analysis," Conference papers 332115, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    11. Ferede, Tadele & Gebreegziabher, Zenebe & Mekonnen, Alemu & Guta, Fantu & Levin, Jörgen & Köhlin, Gunnar, 2013. "Biofuels, Economic Growth, and the External Sector in Ethiopia: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," RFF Working Paper Series dp-13-08-efd, Resources for the Future.
    12. James R Palmer, 2014. "Biofuels and the Politics of Land-Use Change: Tracing the Interactions of Discourse and Place in European Policy Making," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(2), pages 337-352, February.
    13. Antoine Berthou & Lionel Fontagné, 2008. "The Euro Effects on the Firm and Product-Level Trade Margins: Evidence from France," Working Papers 2008-21, CEPII research center.
    14. Dandres, Thomas & Gaudreault, Caroline & Seco, Pablo Tirado & Samson, Réjean, 2014. "Uncertainty management in a macro life cycle assessment of a 2005–2025 European bioenergy policy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 52-61.
    15. Chao, Chi-Chur & Yu, Eden S.H. & Yu, Wusheng, 2009. "Government Budget, Public-Sector Wages, and Corporate Taxes in a Small Open Economy," Conference papers 331917, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    16. Meysut Saygili & Ralph Peters & Christian Knebel, 2018. "African Continental Free Trade Area: Challenges and Opportunities of Tariff Reductions," UNCTAD Blue Series Papers 82, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    17. Mevel, Simon & Mathieu, Morgane, 2016. "Emergence of mega-regional trade agreements and the imperative for African economies to strategically enhance trade-related South-South Cooperation," Conference papers 332678, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    18. Minor, Peter & Mureverwi, Brian, 2013. "A Household Level Analysis of African Trade Liberalization: The Case of Mozambique," Conference papers 332308, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    19. Antoine Bouet, 2010. "Assessing the potential cost of a failed Doha round," Larefi Working Papers 201001, Larefi, Université Bordeaux 4.
    20. Junko Mochizuki & John F. Yanagida & Makena Coffman, 2013. "Market, Welfare and Land-Use Implications of Lignocellulosic Bioethanol in Hawai�i," Working Papers 2013-10, University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:pugtwp:332288. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/gtpurus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.