This paper analyses the determinants of intra-African trade (IAT) to assess the potential obstacles to greater sub-regional trade. Both economic and political arguments suggest that increased IAT can foster a regional take-off. Trade linkages in Africa, however, are very weak. Official statistics show that IAT is a small fraction of each country’s total trade and has remained roughly constant over the years. The main obstacles suggested in the literature include trade policy, insufficient infrastructure, non-convertibility of currencies, ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity and very high political instability. In order to rank such potential obstacles, the study develops an extended gravity model, using a new panel dataset for 41 African countries during the 1980-97 period. Bilateral trade flows between African countries and their major trading partners have been used to identify specific obstacles to IAT. Besides traditional gravity variables (income, income per capita ...
