IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2008-068.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trade in the WAEMU: Developments and Reform Opportunities

Author

Listed:
  • Hans Weisfeld
  • Ms. Manuela Goretti

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of trade reform in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) since 1996 and a quantitative assessment of potential effects on trade patterns and tariff revenue of the current reform agenda. Despite evidence of significant trade complementarities within WAEMU, implementation of the union's current trade regime still suffers from persistent non-tariff barriers and administrative weaknesses. Based on an assessment of prospects for further trade integration, the paper also recommends strengthening the implementation of the present tariff union and supports the plan to extend it to all ECOWAS members. Finally, the paper stresses that an Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU could bring to the region the political momentum needed to address the weaknesses of the current trade regime, while also underlining the corresponding challenges in terms of trade diversion and tariff revenue losses.

Suggested Citation

  • Hans Weisfeld & Ms. Manuela Goretti, 2008. "Trade in the WAEMU: Developments and Reform Opportunities," IMF Working Papers 2008/068, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2008/068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=21814
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keen, Michael & Ligthart, Jenny E., 2002. "Coordinating tariff reduction and domestic tax reform," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 489-507, March.
    2. Romain Wacziarg & Karen Horn Welch, 2008. "Trade Liberalization and Growth: New Evidence," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(2), pages 187-231, June.
    3. L. ALAN WINTERS & NEIL McCULLOCH & ANDREW McKAY, 2015. "Trade Liberalization and Poverty: The Evidence So Far," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Non-Tariff Barriers, Regionalism and Poverty Essays in Applied International Trade Analysis, chapter 14, pages 271-314, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Kym Anderson & Will Martin & Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, 2006. "Would Multilateral Trade Reform Benefit Sub-Saharan Africans?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 15(4), pages 626-670, December.
    5. Mr. Charalambos G Tsangarides & Mr. Jan Kees Martijn, 2007. "Trade Reform in the CEMAC: Developments and Opportunities," IMF Working Papers 2007/137, International Monetary Fund.
    6. International Monetary Fund, 2006. "Central African Economic and Monetary Community: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2006/309, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Baunsgaard, Thomas & Keen, Michael, 2010. "Tax revenue and (or?) trade liberalization," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 563-577, October.
    8. Yongzheng Yang, 2005. "Africa in the Doha Round: Dealing with Preference Erosion and Beyond," IMF Policy Discussion Papers 2005/008, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Hoekman, Bernard & Ozden, Caglar, 2005. "Trade preferences and differential treatment of developing countries : a selective survey," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3566, The World Bank.
    10. Arvind Panagariya, 2002. "EU Preferential Trade Arrangements and Developing Countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(10), pages 1415-1432, November.
    11. David Dollar & Aart Kraay, 2004. "Trade, Growth, and Poverty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(493), pages 22-49, February.
    12. Richard Newfarmer, 2006. "Trade, Doha, and Development : A Window into the Issues," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7135.
    13. John S. Wilson & Catherine L. Mann & Tsunehiro Otsuki, 2005. "Assessing the Benefits of Trade Facilitation: A Global Perspective," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 841-871, June.
    14. P. J. Verdoorn, 1960. "The Intra-Bloc Trade of Benelux," International Economic Association Series, in: E. A. G. Robinson (ed.), Economic Consequences of the Size of Nations, chapter 0, pages 291-329, Palgrave Macmillan.
    15. Mr. Andrew Berg & Anne O. Krueger, 2003. "Trade, Growth, and Poverty: A Selective Survey," IMF Working Papers 2003/030, International Monetary Fund.
    16. L. Alan Winters, 2015. "Trade Liberalisation and Poverty: What are the Links?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Non-Tariff Barriers, Regionalism and Poverty Essays in Applied International Trade Analysis, chapter 13, pages 241-269, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    17. Michaely, Michael, 1996. "Trade preferential agreements in Latin America : an ex-ante assessment," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1583, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Magazzino, Cosimo, 2012. "Revenue and expenditure nexus: A case study of ECOWAS," Economics Discussion Papers 2012-57, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    2. Hinnerk Gnutzmann & Arevik Gnutzmann-Mkrtchyan, 2019. "The silent success of customs unions," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 52(1), pages 178-224, February.
    3. Maïmouna DIAKITE & Jean-François BRUN & Souleymane DIARRA & Nasser ARY TANIMOUNE, 2017. "The effects of tax coordination on the tax revenue mobilization in West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU)," Working Papers 201712, CERDI.
    4. Scott W. Hegerty, 2013. "Exchange market pressure, stock prices, and commodity prices in West Africa," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 750-765, November.
    5. Mario MANSOUR & Grégoire ROTA-GRAZIOSI, 2013. "Tax coordination, tax competition, and revenue mobilization in the west african economic and monetary union," Working Papers P81, FERDI.
    6. Gilles Duffrenot & Kimiko Sugimoto, 2010. "Pegging the future West African single currency in regard to internal/external competitiveness: a counterfactual analysis," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp974, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    7. Mr. Montfort Mlachila & Mr. Tidiane Kinda, 2011. "The Quest for Higher Growth in the WAEMU Region: The Role of Accelerations and Decelerations," IMF Working Papers 2011/174, International Monetary Fund.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Le, Minh Son, 2014. "Trade openness and household welfare within a country: A microeconomic analysis of Vietnamese households," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 56-70.
    2. Will Martin & Kym Anderson, 2006. "Agricultural Trade Reform and the Doha Development Agenda," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6889.
    3. Yongzheng Yang & Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, 2005. "Regional Trade Arrangements in Africa: Past Performance and the Way Forward," IMF Working Papers 2005/036, International Monetary Fund.
    4. International Monetary Fund, 2006. "Central African Economic and Monetary Community: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2006/309, International Monetary Fund.
    5. Emma Aisbett, 2007. "Why are the Critics So Convinced that Globalization is Bad for the Poor?," NBER Chapters, in: Globalization and Poverty, pages 33-86, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Kym Anderson & Will Martin & Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, 2006. "Would Multilateral Trade Reform Benefit Sub-Saharan Africans?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 15(4), pages 626-670, December.
    7. Vatcharin Sirimaneetham, 2006. "What drives liberal policies in developing countries?," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 06/587, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    8. Jean-François Brun & Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2019. "Tax reform, public revenue and public revenue instability in developing countries: Does development aid matter?," CERDI Working papers halshs-02089734, HAL.
    9. Rolf Maier, 2005. "Trade Policy and Pro-Poor Growth," International Trade 0504007, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Guntur Sugiyarto*, 2005. "A Review of: “Ramkishen S. Rajan, Economic Globalization and Asia: Essays on Finance, Trade and Taxation," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 397-402.
    11. Anderson, Kym, 2004. "The Challenge of Reducing Subsidies and Trade Barriers," CEPR Discussion Papers 4592, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Chad E. Hart & John C. Beghin, 2004. "Rethinking Agricultural Domestic Support under the World Trade Organization," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 04-bp43, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    13. Montalbano, Pierluigi, 2011. "Trade Openness and Developing Countries' Vulnerability: Concepts, Misconceptions, and Directions for Research," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 1489-1502, September.
    14. Berger, Helge & Nitsch, Volker, 2008. "Gotcha! A Profile of Smuggling in International Trade," Conference papers 331735, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    15. Wannaphong Durongkaveroj, 2024. "Structural transformation and inequality: Does trade openness matter?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 2631-2663, June.
    16. Liyanaarachchi, Tilak S. & Naranpanawa, Athula & Bandara, Jayatilleke S., 2016. "Impact of trade liberalisation on labour market and poverty in Sri Lanka. An integrated macro-micro modelling approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 102-115.
    17. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2020. "Aid for Trade flows and Poverty Reduction in Recipient-Countries," EconStor Preprints 213807, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    18. Bouët, Antoine & Estrades, Carmen & Laborde, David, 2012. "Cooperation vs. non cooperation in the multilateral trading system: the impact on poverty and inequality in developing countries," Conference papers 332287, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    19. Eswar S. Prasad & Kenneth Rogoff & Shang-Jin Wei & M. Ayhan Kose, 2007. "Financial Globalization, Growth and Volatility in Developing Countries," NBER Chapters, in: Globalization and Poverty, pages 457-516, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Julia Cage & Lucie Gadenne, 2014. "Tax Revenues, Development, and the Fiscal Cost of Trade Liberalization, 1792-2006," Working Papers hal-03460586, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2008/068. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.