Deep Preferential Trade Agreement And Sustainable Development In Africa

Abstract

The trend towards the expansion of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) is becoming more and more apparent. Traditional PTAs that rely on border terms are transitioning to deep PTAs that include high border terms and a variety of post-border terms, but the relationship between deep PTAs and sustainable development has not received significant attention. Using a data from 1990 to 2021 in 23 selected African countries, the study empirically examined the impact of deep PTAs on sustainable development, economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainable development in Africa by using bootstrapped quantile regression. The results show that deep PTAs have a positive impact on sustainable development, the economic and social dimensions of sustainable development. Again, the results also show that deep preferential trade agreements have a negative impact on the environmental dimension of sustainable development. This study highlights the importance of deep PTAs for improving sustainable development and provides new ideas for governments to assist in the formulation of policies that can effectively improve their development. The study therefore recommends that governments should actively engage in negotiations with potential partners, and strengthen trade agreements that include measures for deeper integration. The study also recommended governments should manage urbanisation through urban design that prioritises sustainable development, such as investments in renewable energy sources, and the implementation of effective environmental policies.