Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) Negotiations in WTO: Modalities for a positive post Hong Kong African agenda

Abstract

In this paper, an attempt is made to assess whether Africa is likely to benefit from the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) non-agricultural market access (NAMA) negotiations. We propose a comparison between the African Trade Ministers’ declaration, usually called “the Arusha Declaration” and the Hong Kong WTO ministerial declaration on NAMA negotiations. After assessing the modalities proposed towards the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial conference, we come to a critical conclusion that Africa may not benefit much from these negotiations. African countries could derive benefits from MFN tariff reduction provided that their supply-side constraints and market entry barriers are properly addressed. Concrete proposals from an African Post-Hong Kong perspective are therefore identified. Furthermore, this paper highlights the limited supply capacity and low industrial diversification in Africa. Improving industrial market access is also conditioned on increasing Africa’s exports diversification.