Agricultural Trade Flows among Developing Countries: Do Regional Preferential Trade Agreements make a Difference?

Regional integration through trade is recognized as one way to foster economic growth and poverty reduction. This paper uses the gravity model and 11-year panel data (1996-2006) on Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries to study Zambia’s regional agricultural trade flows and the impact of the SADC Trade Protocol (SADC-TP). Zambia’s volume of trade is significantly related to most of the standard gravity variables. The results indicate that Zambia has been largely trading below potential, especially with respect to exports. There have been improvements in Zambia’s trade flows during the SADC-TP period but only with a few countries. Further improvements will require re-examining protocol implementation and individual countries’ production and marketing costs.