Title: Monitoring Regional Trade Integration: The case of Africa
1Monitoring Regional Trade IntegrationThe case
of Africa
- Lelio Iapadre
- (University of LAquila and UNU-CRIS)
- 4th GARNET Annual Conference
- IFAD, Rome, 13 November 2009
- Based on P. Lelio Iapadre and Francesca Luchetti,
Trade Regionalisation and Openness in Africa,
background paper for the European Report on
Development
2The geographic scope of international integration
- National perspective
- Openness to the rest of the world
- Geographic diversification and concentration
- The role of distance
- Regional perspective
- Intra- and extra-regional integration
- Global perspective
- Global integration as an average of national
integration indicators - Intrinsically global processes, without reference
to national borders
3Regional Integration Basic Concepts(UNU-CRIS,
2006 World Report on Regional Integration)
- Regional integration (a political definition)
- the emergence of a governance level between the
national and the global levels within the system
of world governance, based on (regional)
cooperative behaviour and the design of common
policies and institutions by actors that
traditionally belong(ed) to the national
governance level - Regionalisation
- a complex and multi-dimensional social
transformation process, whereby the regional
level is becoming a relevant space for many
aspects of human behaviour and activities, driven
by social and technological forces similar to
those driving the globalisation process
4Regional trade integration
- Ex-ante measures
- Regional trade liberalisation
- Ex-post measures
- Trade regionalisation
5Monitoring regional trade liberalisation
- Measurement needs
- Measuring to what extent barriers to
intra-regional trade have actually been removed - WTO consistency of preferential integration
agreements - Barriers to intra-regional trade
- Barriers to extra-regional trade
6Monitoring regional trade liberalisation
- Quantitative indicators
- Average tariff rates
- Trade taxation ratios
- Effective rates of protection
- Non-tariff barriers coverage ratios
- Tariff-equivalents of non-tariff barriers
- Trade restrictiveness benchmarks
- Composite indicators of trade restrictiveness
- Indicators of market regulation
- Sector coverage of integration policies
7Monitoring regional trade liberalisation
- Qualitative indicators
- Harmonisation of regulatory regimes
- Rules of origin (symmetry and simplicity)
- Transparency of custom procedures
- Non-discrimination in the treatment of
intellectual property rights - National treatment in investment regulations
- Fairness of dispute-settlement procedures
- Non-discrimination in government procurement
- Harmonisation of competition rules
8Monitoring trade regionalisation
- Measurement needs
- Ex-ante regional integration potential
- Natural trading partners criteria
- Assessing the conditions for trade creation
prevailing over trade diversion - Ex-post trade effects of regional integration
- Intensity of intra-regional trade
- Trade creation and diversion
9Monitoring trade regionalisation
- Statistical tools
- Indicators of intra- and extra-regional trade
intensity - Network analysis of regional trade
- Methods to assess the impact of regional trade
integration - Gravity models
- Computable general equilibrium models
10Indicators of trade regionalisation the case of
Africa
- Regional integration is often considered an
important element of development strategies in
Africa - Welfare and growth effects of regional
integration policies pass through their effects
on trade - Traditional indicators of intra-regional trade
intensity can be misleading - A correct measurement of intra-regional trade
intensity is essential to estimate the impact of
policies and improve the specification of gravity
models
11African regions
- Six non-overlapping African regions
- Arab Maghreb Union (AMU)
- North East Africa
- Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) - Central Africa
- East African Community (EAC)
- Southern Africa
12Trade shares
- Intra-regional trade share
- Srr trr / trw
- 0 Srr 1
- where trr intra-regional trade of region r
- trw total trade of region r.
- Extra-regional trade share 1 Srr
13Intra-regional trade shares in Africa are very low
14Problems of trade shares
Cross-region comparisons Time-series analysis for the same region
Sensitivity to the number of countries (given the size of the region) Regions with a higher number of countries tend to show a higher intra-regional trade share An increase in the number of member countries increases a regions intra-regional trade share
Sensitivity to the size of the region (given the number of countries) Larger regions (in terms of total trade) tend to show a higher intra-regional trade share Pro-cyclical distortion
15Trade intensity indices
- Intra-regional trade intensity
- Ir Srr / Wr (trr / trw) / (twr / tww )
- where Wr region rs weight in world trade
- twr world trade with region r trw
- tww world trade
- Extra-regional trade intensity
- Er (1 Srr) / (1 Wr)
- Geographical neutrality (no preferences)
- Ir 1 ? Er 1
16Intra-regional trade shares in Africa are very
high in proportion to the regions shares of
world trade.
17Problems of trade intensity indices
- Range variability their maximum value is a
function of the regions total trade. - 0 Ir (tww / twr)
- 0 Er tww / (tww twr)
- Range asymmetry their range below the threshold
value of 1 is much smaller than above. - Dynamic ambiguity intra- and extra-regional
trade intensity indices can move in the same
direction, if certain conditions hold.
18A possible solution revealed trade preference
indices
- Regional trade introversion index
- Jr (HIr HEr) / (HIr HEr)
- -1 Jr 1
- where
- HIr Srr/Vr (trr/trw)/(tor/tow)
- HEr (1 Srr) /(1 Vr)
- tor regions r extra-regional trade
- tow total trade of the rest of the world.
- Regional trade extroversion index
- Fr (HEr HIr) / (HEr HIr) Jr
- -1 Fr 1
- Geographical neutrality (no preferences)
- Jr 0 ? Fr 0
- Bi-regional symmetry for i 1, 2
- J1 J2 and F1 F2
19Regional trade introversion is very high in Africa
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21Geographic direction of regional trade
- Another important aspect of trade regionalisation
is the geographic diversification of
intra-regional trade flows. - If the distribution of intra-regional trade flows
were proportional to the trade size of regional
partners (neutrality), this could reveal that
distance-related intra-regional barriers do not
affect the direction of bilateral trade flows. - Intra-regional geographic neutrality index
(IRGNIi) - IRGNIi 1 Sj?iISij IVij /2 Â
- where
- ISij partner js share of region is
intra-regional trade - IVij partner js share of region is total
extra-regional trade.
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23Regional trade openness
- A regions relative degree of openness (Oi) can
be measured by its trade-to-GDP ratio relative to
the world average trade-to-GDP ratio - Â Oi (ti./yi)/(T/Y)
- where
- ti. region is total trade.
- T world trade.
- yi region is gross domestic product (GDP)
- Y world GDP.
- Symmetric indicator of relative trade openness
(SOi) - Â SOi (ti./yi) (T ti.)/(Y yi)
/(ti./yi) (T ti.)/(Y yi) - 1 SOi 1
24The degree of trade openness of African RIAs is
relatively low, notwithstanding the small size of
their economies.
25Raw materials and Africas trade
26Conclusions
- Trade regionalisation in Africa is not low
- Regional trade introversion is very strong, even
in comparison with other RIAs among developing
countries - This is due to their very limited capabilities in
extra-regional trade (domestic and external
barriers) rather than to the process of regional
integration - Trade introversion is falling in some African
regions - Increase in African inter-regional trade
intensity in the 90s - Increase in trade intensity with the rest of the
world, but not with the EU
27Conclusions
- Africas world export share has been sustained by
sales of raw materials to emerging countries - But its share of world manufacturing exports is
still very low and has been declining in the last
few years - Regional integration policies can be very
important to promote sustainable development in
Africa - Their success will, however, be measured more by
their ability to create the necessary
infrastructure for a more effective integration
of African countries into world markets, than on
their effect on intra-regional trade.