The common market for Eastern and Southern Africa and Kenya's export trade

This paper uses the gravity model to examine the impact of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa on the flow of Kenya's exports. The empirical results suggest that COMESA has the effect of trade creation. No evidence for trade diversion is found. Accordingly, COMESA has helped to improve Kenya's export performance and, in turn, assisted in the effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The results also show that nominal GDP of importing countries, distance, adjacency, and common official language have a statistically significant impact on the flow of Kenya's exports.