Arab trade: Data, models and issues

Introduction This chapter analyses the evolving trade patterns between Arab countries and other trading partners, using UNCTAD’s Comtrade data by commodity over a couple of sample periods. The two years 1998 and 2008 were selected for identifying the salient features of the structure and pattern of Arab trade in these two periods as well as the evolving nature and trends of this trade between the two periods. The countries included in this study are those which form the focus of the current book; namely, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine and Sudan. The objective of this historical and statistical account is to trace critical changes in the pattern, magnitudes, structure of Arab trade (particularly Arab exports) and to explore the potential of expanding this trade among the chosen five Arab countries in the region, other Arab countries, dominant groupings of countries and the rest of the world. In particular, the aim of this analysis is to construct a specific set of trade matrices by commodity in order to identify and quantify the following: a The trade structures as captured by the revealed comparative advantage coefficients, concordance indices, intra-industry trade coefficients, concentration indices (normalized and un-normalized) and other determinants of bilateral and multilateral trade within and outside the Arab region.