African countries loses billions of dollars due to high trade barriers

African countries are losing billions of dollars in potential trade earnings every year due to high trade barriers. A latest World Bank (WB) report has indicated.

The report said it would be easier for Africa to trade with the rest of the world than herself, which is a far cry from the expectation and aim of African leaders who are calling for a continental free trade area by 2017 to boost trade within the continent.

This was contained in a release copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Friday.

It said: “These high trade barriers lead to regional trade fragmentation which deprives the continent of new sources of economic growth, new jobs, and sharply falling poverty, factors which accompanied significant trade integration in East Asia and other regions”.

The release said the cross-border production networks that played an important role to increase economic growth particularly in East Asia, had yet to materialise in Africa.

It announced that the conclusions of WB’s report which were of particular pertinence for Ghana would be presented at a forum where recent analysis of the barriers to trade caused by lack of implementation of Economic Community of West African States commitments in the region would be discussed.

The release said participants at the event would be expected to discuss policy responses to address these barriers, simplify and improve transparency of trade procedures in the region, and improve intra-regional collaboration among government agencies that intervened in trade procedures.

“In particular, the presentation will focus on how these barriers impact on ordinary traders in Ghana when trading with Nigeria,” it said.**