GB502 Week 6 Discussion

Unit 6: Lecture

Food for Thought

https://youtu.be/NTBH4jcC0dU

The Worry Over Morocco's Request For ECOWAS Membership

Sub-Sahara is a region with differentiated trade partners and sources of finance.  Inter-regional trade takes place with countries outside the region, and advanced economies remain the largest destinations of its exports. China, India and other developing countries in Asia are progressively prominent as trade partners. 

Intra-regional trade and financial connections within the region have expanded in recent years, and look set to expand faster in the years ahead.  For instance North African countries such as Morocco has already made significant progress with the region.  Although progress has been made, sub-Saharan Africa’s share of Morocco's external trade remains low in contrast with its other partners, such as the European Union, or to a lesser extent, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Trade with the latter accounted for 56.7% and 15.3%, respectively, of Morocco's total trade in 2015, compared to only 3.4% with sub-Saharan Africa. This trend is because of the weakness of the SSA capital markets’ infrastructure, the non-application of trade procedures and the effective absence of direct land or sea transport lines. This is also reflected by a pointer that incorporates the notion of distance between countries in estimating trade costs.

The costs of trade with Sub-Saharan Africa are very high. Morocco has concluded numerous agreements with sub-Saharan African countries in the form of trade and tariff arrangements, based on the Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause, or multilateral agreements. However, several of these accords have not yet entered into force. But one can already say that trade relations between Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa remain asymmetrical as they tend to benefit Morocco more.  

References

· Berahab, R. (2017, February 1).  Relations between Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa: What is the potential for trade and foreign direct investment? (Links to an external site.)  Retrieved from http://www.ocppc.ma/publications/relations-between-morocco-and-sub-saharan-africa-what-potential-trade-and-foreign

· N'da, K. C. (2012, December 20).  The Cost of Doing Business in Sub-Saharan Africa (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from https://www.ictsd.org/bridges-news/bridges-africa/news/the-cost-of-doing-business-in-sub-saharan-africa