Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Economic Effects of Integration in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC): Some General Equilibrium Estimates for Cameroon |
Authors: | Bakoup, Ferdinand Tarr, David |
Year: | 2000 |
Periodical: | African Development Review |
Volume: | 12 |
Issue: | 2 |
Period: | December |
Pages: | 161-190 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Cameroon |
Subjects: | tariffs Communauté Économique et Monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale Economics and Trade Inter-African Relations |
External link: | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8268.00021/pdf |
Abstract: | Building on the experience of the customs and economic union of UDEAC, formed in 1964, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic, and Chad formed the Central African Economic and Monetary Community in 1994, which is known by its French acronym CEMAC. In this paper the focus is on CEMAC's largest member, Cameroon, which constitutes about half of the size of the combined CEMAC market. In order to ascertain the source of the gains and losses Cameroon derives from CEMAC membership, the impact of three aspects of the CEMAC agreements are quantitatively decomposed: Cameroon's elimination of tariffs on imports from its regional partners; the elimination of tariffs on Cameroon's exports by its regional partners; and the reduction of Cameroon's tariff on imports from the rest of the world. The paper also estimates the effects on Cameroon of unilateral trade liberalization and compares this to joining CEMAC. The results suggest that obtaining preferred access to partner countries helps the typical country, but if joining a regional arrangement means raising external tariffs to the rest of the world, it is likely to reduce welfare. External tariff reduction explains about three quarters of Cameroon's welfare gain. However, in the event that Cameroon's partners fail to provide tariff free access to their markets, Cameroon would gain even more from free trade than it would from implementing the CEMAC arrangements. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. |