Enhancing Africa–India Regional Trade Agreements: Issues and Policy Recommendations

Abstract

While Africa is not as developed as most of the other continents, its growing economy and high populace present great business opportunities hence, it is a promising destination for global investment. Comparatively, the Asian population is higher than that of Africa yet issues of food deficiency and low agricultural production among others are more pronounced in Africa than Asia. Specifically, India’s green revolution transformed the country from a food deficit to a food self-sufficient nation. Perhaps, this justifies collaboration between the two parties. An example of such collaboration is through trade agreements which over the years, have been supported on the basis of fostering economic growth through increased trade. However, the critics of trade agreements have also argued that it can be exploitative. This chapter demonstrates that while the benefits of increased trade between the two parties cannot be disregarded, there have also been challenges. We therefore recommend that in addition to infrastructure improvement; improving market information flow; institutional support and adoption of import substitutability policy coupled with a few protectionist policies will maximize the benefits from trade agreements.