RTA and Economic Growth. The case of SADC - DAAD partnership ...

exports of each country over the period 2000 to 2011 and compared to the overall imports and
exports of all fourteen countries over that same period.
Row Labels Exports (%) Imports (%)
Angola 0.61 0.04
Botswana 0.20 0.10
Congo, Dem. Rep. 0.06 0.10
Lesotho 0.26 0.21
Madagascar 54.57 6.41
Malawi 0.29 0.27
Mozambique 0.90 2.06
Namibia 0.06 0.20
Seychelles 8.32 3.86
South Africa 31.20 80.58
Swaziland 0.05 2.16
Tanzania 1.26 0.56
Zambia 0.46 2.32
Zimbabwe 1.77 1.15
Table 4.
Madagascar and South Africa dominate trade with 54.6% and 31.20% of SADC exports over the
period respectively. However as mentioned earlier, Mauritius’ overall world exports fails to countries
in SADC as exports are concentrated elsewhere than in SADC. The SADC falls well behind that of
EU for example. The products are supported by several initiatives, namely Everything But Arms
(EBA) initiative, the Lome Convention amongst others. Some countries may have preferential
market access in the EU. In addition to that, Mauritius flow of exports is more often dealt with in
COMESA than in SADC. Nonetheless back to the consideration of SADC only, it is to be
mentioned that Madagascar was expelled during that period, and yet stayed the first ranked of
importing from Mauritius. The second best in exports is South Africa, clearly seen from the table.
In Imports, both countries are still the two best ranked. South Africa with a highly differential
percentage compared to the others (80.58%) and Madagascar laying far behind but yet the second
best ranked at 6.41% of imports to Mauritius. Again, the analysis of patterns of trade for Mauritius