The rise and fall of (Chinese) African apparel exports

Rotunno, Lorenzo; Vézina, Pierre Louis; Wang, Zheng

Abstract

During the final years of the Multifiber Agreement (2001-2005) the US imposed quotas on Chinese apparel while it gave African apparel duty- and quota-free access. We argue that the combination of these policies led to a rapid but ephemeral rise of African exports that can be explained in part by ethnic-Chinese firms using Africa as a quota-hopping export platform. We first provide a large body of anecdotal evidence on the ethnic-Chinese apparel wave in Africa. Second, we show that Chinese exports to Africa predict US imports from the same countries and in the same apparel categories but only where transhipment incentives are present, i.e. for products facing US quotas and in countries with preferential access to the US unconstrained by rules of origin. Our estimates indicate that direct transhipment may account for around 22% of Africa's apparel exports during 2001-2008.

Citation

Rotunno, L., Vézina, P. L., & Wang, Z. (2013). The rise and fall of (Chinese) African apparel exports. Journal of Development Economics, 105, 152-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2013.08.001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 7, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Aug 15, 2013
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 23, 2017
• Journal: Journal of development economics
• Print ISSN: 0304-3878
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 105
• Pages: 152-163
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2013.08.001
• Keywords: Economics and Econometrics; Development
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/471293
• Publisher URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387813001168
• Additional Information: Authors' accepted manuscript of article published: Journal of development economics, 2013, v.105
• Contract Date: Nov 23, 2017