What are OECD trade preferences worth to sub-Saharan Africa?
Alexander J. Yeats and Dec No 1254, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank Abstract: Some developing countries may experience important trade losses if tariffs are liberalized on a general most-favored-nation (MFN) basis. Sub-Saharan Africa appears to be especially vulnerable to this problem. African countries receive important Lome Convention preferences in the European Economic Community (EEC), under which duty-free treatment, or tariffs below MFN and generalized system of preferences (GSP) rates, are applied to their exports. Other OECD countries normally apply GSP duties, or even more advantageous”least developed”country preferences to African exports. The proposed Uruguay Round reductions in MFN tariffs will erode those tariff preference margins and cause some African exports to be displaced by other suppliers. The author documents the importance of African countries of existing OECD preference, particularly those of the EEC. More than 95 percent of all African-t
