Africa-EU partnership agreement and multilateral trade liberalizations in Africa

Objectives: This paper argues that the new focus of European Union-African partnership agreements which place less emphasis on preferential trade rooted in rules of origin but stress multilateral liberalization and regionalism offer limited opportunities for stimulating  export-led growth in Sub-Sahara Africa.  It reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the relationship between the emergent multilateral agreements and regionalism, with the aim of discerning whether advocated regionalism is likely to be a threat to, or an opportunity for broader trade liberalization. This paper therefore posits that: (i) stagnating growth in traditional export sectors and similarity of products limits the scope for intra-Africa regional trade expansion; (ii) The domination of Africa’s regional economic sphere by the Northern multinationals producing for the regional markets further creates disincentives for export trade outside the region.

Data/Method of Analysis: The study shall analyze data on direction of trade between EU and Africa, as well as with other regions of the world, which span through periods of 1980 to 2012. The method of analysis will be predominantly descriptive statistics which reviews the trends and pattern of trade between the EU and AU during eras of preferential trade agreements and the partnership agreements. 

Results/Expected Results: This is expected to focus on the comparison of the implicit welfare effects of the current regionalism and partnership agreements for the partners and globally, noting the strengths, weakness opportunities and threats.   This shall conclude with a call for the redesign of partnership agreements to provide special market access for African exports in addition to the promotion of inter- and intra-regional export trade capacity and development.