Contributions of This Volume

In exchange for these cross-country actions, bilateral and multilateral development partners could commit to the following: • Significantly increasing international financial assistance for improved social services and other life-sustaining infrastructure designed to raise living standards and create portable human capital in lagging countries • Increasing financial support for growth-sustaining infrastructure— such as ports, transportation links, and ICT—in countries where economic takeoff is most likely as well as for infrastructure to link the markets of leading countries with labor, capital, goods, and ideas from their lagging neighbors • Providing preferential access for Sub-Saharan African exports to the markets of high-income countries, without strict rules of origin or eligibility criteria, so that the rules of origin do not impede rapid growth of trade in intermediate inputs with other LMICs.

Fostering Regional Cooperation on Multiple Fronts

By deepening regional collaborations—including through the timely and effective implementation of the AfCFTA—Sub-Saharan African countries can minimize the distortions of tariffs and nontariff measures and provide more opportunities for their firms to participate in regional and global value chains. Addressing these challenges requires (a) strengthening cooperation between neighboring countries to enlarge the size of the market, so that it is attractive to foreign investors; and (b) securing access to critical intermediate goods, to make the leap to a new product less costly and risky.

By looking at which sectors offer the most promise for further development, countries in natural neighborhoods can focus cooperation on sectorspecific infrastructure (such as common standards, compliance, and metrology systems) and specific curricula to build a skilled labor force and adapt new technologies.

Special economic zones can also be a successful addition when they address specific market failures. However, even in a restricted area, getting the conditions right requires careful planning and implementation to ensure that the needed resources—such as labor, land, water, electricity, and telecommunications—are readily available, regulatory barriers are minimized, and connectivity is seamless. Communication with businesses in the targeted sectors is critical for ensuring that the zone meets their needs.

Contributions of This Volume

The chapters in this volume provide a range of perspectives on market access opportunities for Africa in the new trade environment. In addition to examining the role of nonreciprocal trade agreements in traditional markets—the EU and the US—studies in this volume suggest the importance of new frontier markets in East and South Asia. In addition, efforts to expand and diversify market access would be bolstered by deepening intraregional trade and integration.