Market Access Conditions and Sub-Saharan Africa’s Exports Diversification

Abstract

Despite some progress in the last decade, Sub-Saharan Africa’s participation in the global economy remains generally limited and poorly diversified. Among the various reasons behind the lack of competitiveness of Sub-Saharan Africa exports, this paper analyzes whether changes in market access conditions affect export diversification. The findings of this paper indicate that market access conditions remain important and that the presence of trade relationships depends not only on favorable market access conditions but also on how these compare relative to foreign competitors. These results imply that freer trade within Sub-Saharan African countries could provide significant incentive to intra-regional trade.