IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/6262.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Rethinking Trade Preferences: How Africa Can Diversify its Exports

Author

Listed:
  • Venables, Anthony
  • Collier, Paul

Abstract

This paper argues that the contribution of trade preferences to economic development needs to be reappraised in light of the growth of globalized trade in manufactures. Trade preferences may be able to act as a catalyst for manufacturing exports, leading to rapid growth in exports and employment. To do so, preferences need to be designed to be consistent with international trade in fragmented ?tasks? (as opposed to complete products) and need to be open to countries with sufficient levels of complementary inputs such as skills and infrastructure. Recent experience with the African Growth and Opportunities Act shows that, in the right conditions, Sub-Saharan African countries have had large manufacturing export supply response to trade preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Venables, Anthony & Collier, Paul, 2007. "Rethinking Trade Preferences: How Africa Can Diversify its Exports," CEPR Discussion Papers 6262, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6262
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP6262
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olivier Cadot & Jaime de Melo, 2015. "Why OECD Countries Should Reform Rules of Origin," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Developing Countries in the World Economy, chapter 16, pages 381-409, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Patrick Low, 2005. "Multilateral Solutions to the Erosion of Non-Reciprocal Preferences in NAMA," Working Papers id:289, eSocialSciences.
    3. Gordon H. Hanson, 2003. "What Has Happened to Wages in Mexico since NAFTA?," NBER Working Papers 9563, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Cadot, Olivier & Estevadeordal, Antoni & Suwa-Eisenmann, Akiko & Verdier, Thierry (ed.), 2006. "The Origin of Goods: Rules of Origin in Regional Trade Agreements," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199290482.
    5. Markusen, James R. & Venables, Anthony J., 2007. "Interacting factor endowments and trade costs: A multi-country, multi-good approach to trade theory," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 333-354, November.
    6. Gene M. Grossman & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2006. "The rise of offshoring: it's not wine for cloth anymore," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 59-102.
    7. Olivier Cadot & Antoni Estevadeordal & Akiko Suwa-Eisenmann & Thierry Verdier, 2006. "The Origin of Goods: Rules of Origin in Regional Trade Agreements," Post-Print halshs-00754856, HAL.
    8. Mr. Arvind Subramanian & Mr. Devesh Roy, 2001. "Who Can Explain The Mauritian Miracle: Meade, Romer, Sachs or Rodrik?," IMF Working Papers 2001/116, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Arndt, Sven W. & Kierzkowski, Henryk (ed.), 2001. "Fragmentation: New Production Patterns in the World Economy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199243310.
    10. Mr. Sanjeev Gupta & Ms. Catherine A Pattillo & Mr. Kevin J Carey, 2005. "Sustaining Growth Accelerations and Pro-Poor Growth in Africa," IMF Working Papers 2005/195, International Monetary Fund.
    11. J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), 2004. "Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Kiyoyasu Tanaka, 2021. "The European Union's reform in rules of origin and international trade: Evidence from Cambodia," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(10), pages 3025-3050, October.
    2. Patrick Georges, 2010. "Dispensing with NAFTA Rules of Origin? Some Policy Options," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(11), pages 1606-1637, November.
    3. Anthony J. Venables, 2008. "Rethinking Economic Growth in a Globalizing World," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28041, December.
    4. Kelly Ruth, 2010. "EU and U.S. Non-Reciprocal Preferences: Maintaining the Acquis," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-39, April.
    5. Bernard Hoekman & Stefano Inama, 2017. "Rules of Origin as Non-Tariff Measures: Towards Greater Regulatory Convergence," RSCAS Working Papers 2017/45, European University Institute.
    6. Honggue Lee, 2013. "The Effects of Preferential Rules of Origin on Trade Flows," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 29, pages 379-403.
    7. Marco Fugazza & Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, 2014. "The “Emulator Effect” of the Uruguay Round on US Regionalism," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 1049-1078, November.
    8. Richard E. Baldwin, 2011. "Multilateralising Regionalism: Spaghetti Bowls as Building Blocks on the Path to Global Free Trade," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume I, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Céline Carrere & Jaime Melo De, 2011. "The Doha Round and Market Access for LDCs: Scenarios for the EU and US Markets," CERDI Working papers halshs-00554311, HAL.
    10. Laura COLLINSON & Jaime DE MELO, 2011. "Getting the best out of regional integration: Some thoughts for Rwanda," Working Papers P27, FERDI.
    11. Jaime DE MELO & Ben SHEPHERD, 2018. "The Economics of Non-Tariff Measures: A Primer," Working Papers P212, FERDI.
    12. Krishna, Kala, 2009. "Background Paper on the IMF's Trade Restrictiveness Index," MPRA Paper 21316, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Fugazza, Marco & Nicita, Alessandro, 2011. "Measuring preferential market access," MPRA Paper 38565, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Anthony J. Venables, 2006. "Shifts in economic geography and their causes," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 91(Q IV), pages 61-85.
    15. Baldwin, Richard & Venables, Anthony J., 2013. "Spiders and snakes: Offshoring and agglomeration in the global economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 245-254.
    16. Nordås, Hildegunn Kyvik, 2004. "Is trade liberalization a window of opportunity for women?," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2003-03, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    17. repec:idb:brikps:255 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Chang, Yang-Ming & Xiao, Renfeng, 2015. "Preferential trade agreements between asymmetric countries: Free trade areas (with rules of origin) vs. customs unions," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 28-43.
    19. de Melo, Jaime & Carrère, Céline, 2009. "The Doha Round and Market Access for LDCs: Scenarios for the EU and US Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 7313, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Amador, João & Cabral, Sónia, 2008. "International fragmentation of production in the Portuguese economy: What do different measures tell us?," MPRA Paper 9783, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Amador, João & Cabral, Sónia, 2009. "Vertical specialization across the world: A relative measure," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 267-280, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agoa; Eba; Export diversification; Rules of origin; Trade preferences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cpr:ceprdp:6262. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.