African traders are taking advantage of favorable import tariffs provided by the US, Canada, EU, and Japan (the “Quad nations”) under different preferential trade agreements (PTAs), which has led to significant exports to these quad nations.
Despite growing calls for increased intraregional trade, businesses in Africa are taking advantage of preferential trade deals with the other continents and ignoring local free trade accords.
Because of this, commerce between the regional blocs has trailed substantially behind transactions with the Quad nations. For instance, exports to the EU, US, Japan, and Canada in 2018 were worth $25.6 billion, compared to $9.3 billion in trade amongst Comesa member states.
