North–South trade competition in Africa’s least developed countries

Abstract

The paper presents merchandise trade between the North and Africa’s 34 least developed countries (LDCs), and between the South and Africa’s LDCs over the period from 2000 to 2014. The North is represented by the European Union and the United States. The South denotes four emerging economies: Brazil, South Africa, India, and China (BASIC). The analysis is based on the data retrieved from the UN Comtrade Database. The EU is a major trading partner for Africa, and the US was the second important trading partner for the African continent until 2008. However, their role in the trade with all African countries, and specially with Africa’s LDCs, has been declining since the beginning of the global crisis. On the other hand, a significant increase in BASIC–Africa trade has been observed in the recent years. Since 2010, the value of bilateral trade of the BASIC countries with Africa’s LDCs has been surpassing the EU and US’s trade with those African countries. In the years 2009–2014, the BASIC countries dominated the bilateral trade with 16 of Africa’s least developed countries.