Africa's Export Success.

While Africa faces tremendous challenges on the road to integration into the world trading system, there is more to Africa's trade performance than meets the eye. Many African export sectors have outperformed world market growth. Champions in the African export portfolio include cut flowers, frozen fish, t-shirts, women's trousers, footwear and transistors. These cases illustrate that Africa can compete.

These are among the findings of the International Trade Centre's new Trade Performance Index, launched in Bangkok at UNCTAD X. The Trade Performance Index ranks the export performance of 184 countries in 14 export sectors, placing export sectors in all countries on a global competitiveness ladder. The Trade Performance Index is based on 1998 export performance, as well as shifts in export performance between 1994 and 1998.

The Trade Performance index was simultaneously launched on ITC's web site (http://www.intracen.org), with graphs and tables for African countries, as well as all other countries.

Africa diversifies

Africa's exports in 1998 totalled an estimated US$ 124 billion. Between 1994 and 1998, Africa's total non-oil exports expanded at a robust 5% each year. Behind these figures are success stories for a variety of products and countries.

Traditionally a commodity exporter, Africa is diversifying into industrial goods and services. Tunisia is a good example of Africa's emerging growth areas. Exports of electronic components have passed the US$ 500 million mark, expanding at annual rates of 22% for several years. In clothing, despite fierce global competition, Tunisia has been able to increase its market share. It now ranks eighth among 184 countries in the Trade Performance Index for clothing, reflecting exports of US$ 2.5 billion to a diversified group of countries. Mauritius, Africa's other major clothing exporter, has also increased its world market share, supplying garments worth US$ 1 billion.

In textiles, the continent's leading suppliers are South Africa, Morocco and Zimbabwe. More recently, a number of very successful small companies are driving rapid improvement in textile exports in Cameroon, Madagascar and Sudan.

Leading positions in international trade

Southern Africa...