What is it about?
Industrial policy has become a new development priority for many African countries. In this context, many scholars point to the WTO and argue that a key impediment towards Africa’s successful industrialization is the narrowing of the WTO policy space. This paper challenges that argument through examining the extent to which African countries actually take into account the WTO policy space when implementing their industrial policy objectives. Through an empirical analysis of industrial policy priorities and key trade and investment laws and regulations in Kenya, Ghana and Namibia, this paper concludes that a significant policy constraint to effective industrialization in Africa is not the WTO policy space per se, but rather a lack of alignment between a country’s industrial policy objectives, trade and investment laws, and the WTO policy space.
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Why is it important?
By highlighting that the key policy constraints to effective industrialization in Africa is a lack of policy alignment, and not the WTO, this paper encourages a shift int the discussion on trade, development, and industrial policy from the multilateral system to domestic policies.
Perspectives
With this paper, I have attempted to demonstrate, on the basis of three case studies, that solutions to industrialization in Africa need to be created at a domestic policy level, and that the WTO's role in this may not be as prominent as is often claimed. We can only create change if we can effectively tackle the root of a problem, and this paper has attempted to add to our understanding of the root cause of the lack of industrialization in Africa - seen from a policy perspective.
Colette van der Ven
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This page is a summary of: Trade, Development and Industrial Policy in Africa: The Case for a Pragmatic Approach to Optimizing Policy Coherence Between Industrial Policy and the WTO Policy Space, The Law and Development Review, January 2017, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/ldr-2016-0018.
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