The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is the flagship of U.S. commercial and development policy with Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper looks at the impact of the trade preferences that are the central element of AGOA on African countries' exports to the U.S. and puts them in the perspective of the development of the region. The paper finds that, while stimulating export diversification in a few countries, AGOA has fallen short of the potential impetus that preferences could otherwise provide African exporters. The impact of AGOA would be enhanced if preferences were extended to all products. This means removing tariff barriers to a range of agricultural products and to textiles and a number of other manufactured goods. There also needs to be a fundamental change in approach to the rules of origin. Given the stage of development and economic size of Sub-Saharan Africa, nonrestrictive rules of origin are crucial. For all countries in Africa, those that have and those that have not benefited from preferences, there are enormous infrastructure weaknesses and often extremely poor policy environments that raise trade costs and push African producers further away from international markets. Effective trade preferences (those with nonrestrictive rules of origin) can provide a limited window of opportunity to exports while these key barriers to trade are addressed. But dealing with the barriers is the priority.
Bibliographic Details
| Main Authors: |
Brenton, Paul,
Hoppe, Mombert |
|---|
| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper
biblioteca
|
|---|
| Language: | English
en_US |
|---|
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2006-08
|
|---|
| Subjects: | AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS,
AGRICULTURE,
APPAREL,
APPAREL ACCOUNTS,
APPAREL EXPORTS,
APPAREL INDUSTRY,
APPAREL PREFERENCES,
APPAREL PRODUCERS,
APPAREL PRODUCTS,
APPAREL SECTOR,
AVERAGE TARIFF,
AVERAGE TARIFFS,
COMMODITY PRICES,
COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE,
COMPETITIVE PRICE,
COMPETITIVENESS,
CUSTOMS,
DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE,
DEVELOPMENT POLICY,
ECONOMIC INTEGRATION,
ECONOMIC SIZE,
EXCHANGE RATES,
EXPORT DIVERSIFICATION,
EXPORT GROWTH,
EXPORT SECTOR,
EXPORTERS,
EXPORTS,
FINAL GOODS,
GDP,
GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES,
GNP,
IMPORT QUANTITIES,
INTERNATIONAL MARKETS,
INTERNATIONAL TRADE,
ITC,
LDCS,
LIBERALIZATION,
MARKET ACCESS,
OIL IMPORTS,
OIL PRICES,
POSITIVE EFFECTS,
PREFERENTIAL ACCESS,
PREFERENTIAL TRADE,
PREFERENTIAL TRADE AGREEMENTS,
PREFERENTIAL TRADE ARRANGEMENTS,
PRIMARY PRODUCTS,
QUANTITATIVE RESTRICTIONS,
REGIONAL INTEGRATION,
RESTRICTIVE RULES OF ORIGIN,
RULES OF ORIGIN,
SAFEGUARD DUTIES,
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA,
SUGAR,
SUPPLIER,
SUPPLIERS,
SUPPLY CHAIN,
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT,
TARIFF BARRIERS,
TARIFF CLASSIFICATION,
TARIFF ESCALATION,
TARIFF LINES,
TARIFF RATE,
TRADE BARRIERS,
TRADE COSTS,
TRADE DEFLECTION,
TRADE OPPORTUNITIES,
TRADE PREFERENCES,
VALUE ADDED,
VALUE OF EXPORTS,
WAGES,
WORLD MARKET,
ZERO TARIFF, |
|---|
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2006/08/7014453/african-growth-opportunity-act-exports-development-sub-saharan-africa
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9288
|
|---|
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
|---|
