DP2820 Unrestricted Market Access for Sub-Saharan Africa: How Much is it Worth and Who Pays?

Author(s): Elena Ianchovichina , Aaditya Mattoo , Marcelo Olarreaga

Publication Date: April 2001

Keyword(s): Duty-Free Access , Least Developed Countries , Sub-Saharan Africa

JEL(s): F11 , F13

Programme Areas: International Trade and Regional Economics

Link to this Page: www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP2820.asp

Initiatives to improve market access for the poorest countries have recently been announced by the European Union, Japan and the United States. This Paper assesses the impact on Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) of these initiatives and others that might be taken. We find that fully unrestricted access to all the QUAD countries would produce substantial gains for SSA, leading to a 14% increase in non-oil exports ($2.5 billion) and boosting real incomes in SSA by around 1%. Most of these gains would come from preferential access to the highly protected Japanese and European agricultural markets. The smallness of SSA ensures that the costs of trade diversion for the QUAD and other developing countries are negligible.