Author: Daouda Cissé, .

Globalisation has been one of the most debated con - cepts in the 21st century. It has brought together developed, emerging and developing economies to strengthen trade, investment as well as political and diplomatic ties. Foreign trade based on the Gen - eral Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been the main vehicle for countries around the world for im - ports and exports. In its ideal form, globalisation was initially based on the economic principle of comparative advan - tage and free movement of goods across borders in a free market. Comparative advantage assumes that as countries concentrate on producing the kinds of goods and services in which they have a relative edge, the total effect will be an increased volume of trade from which all trading partners will benefit. The search for new and growing markets has become im - portant for countries around the world to increase their market share and trade volumes. Policies have been elaborated to achieve new developments in world trade. But in addition to comparative advan - tage, globalisation is propelled by other more com - plex factors, which include frictions in the movement of goods, policy implementation, the effect on the market and numerous other conditionalities. Besides, the development of Information Com - munication Technologies (ICT) and the moderni - sation of transport to enable communication and the flow of goods have played an unprecedented role in connecting the world. The contemporary phase of globalisation has been underscored by ICT and reduced transportation costs, paving the way for compression of the world economy, blurring of national borders and removal of barriers to enhance trade, financial flows and labour movement, even though the effects have been somewhat limited (Su - mit 2010). Developed countries have had long relationships with developing countries, including emerging economies, due to the early trade and investment connections they established, but globalisation has also enabled interactions and greater economic co - operation between emerging economies and devel - oping countries within a South-South cooperation framework. Globalisation has thus played a role in the emergence of developing countries in the world economy. In the process of Africa’s trade liberalisation, reforms aiming at import substitution have been undertaken, but with limitations. In fact, most Af - rican countries have been dependent on imports of manufactured goods as well as food products due to a lack of policies to develop industries and achieve food self-sufficiency, which could contribute to more balanced trade between Africa and the rest of the world. In the 1990s, the strong commitment to import- substitution evident in the 1960s and 1970s in Africa was gradually abandoned in favour of a more open and outward-oriented economic and policy stance (Oyejide and Njinkeu 2007). However, in the wake of globalisation, Africa seems not to be fully inte - grated into the interconnected global economy and not to have policies for its economic transformation. While Killick (2000) states that a significant part of the world and a large number of countries are now effectively participating in processes of integration and globalisation, Africa has consistently fallen be - hind in trade growth. Today Africa’s total exports hardly account for 2 per cent of total world exports, and it has a 3 per cent share of world trade. African countries have historically lacked active participa - tion and assertiveness in the various multilateral trade negotiations that have shaped the institutions, rules and operational modalities of the global trad - ing system (Oyejide and Njinkeu 2007).