African countries must expand and diversify their participation in international trade and global value chains to transform their economies and reduce poverty, a new World Bank Book, has suggested.
The seven- chapter book titled “Africa in the New Trade Environment: Market Access in Trouble Times,” is authored by two economists of the World Bank, Albert Zeufack and Souleymane Coulibaly.
The book explores ways to maximise Africa’s access to the main world markets, while, at the same time, diversifying access to the emerging Asian markets.
It also suggests a three-pronged approach to help boost Africa’s share of the global trade, including redirecting market access from traditional partners such as the US, UK, diversity trade with Asia.
“The continent must go beyond trade in raw materials and link its production and trade to the global economy to take advantage of the unlimited demand and innovation along the supply chain. This requires comprehensive and dynamic efforts that bolster Africa’s export market access and diversified its markets to new regions and new products while also strengthening regional trade,” says the new book.
The World Bank Vice President for Western and Central Africa, OusmaneDiagana, in in his remarks said the global economy was a source of growth that African economies could not afford to ignore.
“While African exports of goods and services have seen their fastest growth in the past decade, the volumes remain low at just three per cent of global trade. The time is ripe for policymakers to expand their thinking beyond traditional approaches and traditional markets if they want to play an active role in international trade in the 21st century,” he said.
Also in commenting on the book, the World Bank Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa, Hafez Ghana, said “deepening regional integration to scale up supply capacity and build regional value chains is essential to the continent’s economic transformation. The establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area presents major opportunities to boost intra-African Trade, strengthen the complementarities of production and exports, create employment, and limit the impact of commodity price volatility on the participants.”
Former Chief of the Trade Policy Division of the World Bank, Professor Jaime De Melo, who was the guest speaker, commended the authors of the book.
He said Africa must change the trade dynamics towards greater participation in supply chain trade, recognize tariff reduction and take seriously the unnecessary complexity of rules of origin.
Prof.Meloemphasised the need for the creation of regional economic corporation models and prepare for rising trade protectionism.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, John Alan Kyerematen, in his remarks commended the authors and the World Bank for the book.
He said the book was a groundbreaking initiative “Because one of the challenges facing Africa is failure to prioritise trade as a national development agenda.”
DrZeuefack, who is the World Bank Chief Economist for Africa, said he and his colleague decided to write the book because of Africa’s low participation on the global trade.
He said Africa accounted for only three per cent of global trade, which he described as “stubbornly low.”
African countries need to undertake bold domestic structural reforms to scale up the supply capacity of the region. This can be achieved by improving digital and physical connectivity, maintaining smart macroeconomic management with stable and competitive exchange rates and low inflation, and increasing the efficiency of regulatory, legal and judiciary institutions,” he said.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
