Research on the Impact of Eritrea’s Integration into COMESA on its Economic Development.pdf

1、Different studies and publications have been made about the African countries’ economic integrations and achievements in the past three decades.These studies assessed the actual and potential benefits of the different re

2、gional economic integrations in Africa and most of them claim that there is positive outcome (impact) of these integrations on the member states’ economic growth.This research discusses the economic effect of the COMESA

3、integration on Eritrea’s economic development by assessing the global trade performance and intra-COMESA trade of Eritrea from 2001 to 2012.It also analyses the evolution of intra-COMESA and extra-COMESA trade of the mem

4、ber states in the same period and it tries to figure out the significance of Eritrea’s trade performance in intra-COMESA trade and on its economic development.Moreover,it also empirically investigates the correlation of

5、the trade performance and its real GDP (output).
　　The research shows that in contrast to some of the member states of the integration,there is no clear sign of classical benefits of trade creation and competitiveness

6、 enhancing that Eritrea has gained from joining COMESA.Since 2001,Eritrea’s real GDP growth rate has been in a deteriorating trend,except in 2011 and 2012 where the growth progressed due to the export of gold and silver

7、from the mining industry.Both the descriptive and empirical analysis of the research indicates that the contribution of COMESA to the development of Eritrea’s economy is negligible despite the improvements of trade volum