Embodied Land Resources Trade in Major African Countries: A Global Trade and Supply Chains Perspective

Objective: Many countries on the African continent are reliant on land resources for their economic development and international trade. Previous studies reveal that international trade may result in detrimental resource trade balances in terms of “embodied flows” of traded commodities. However, for African countries, such issues remain relatively unexplored from the perspective of international trade. Understanding how some African countries lose or gain embodied land resources through international trade is the focus of this chapter.Methodology: Data from the 2015 Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) model is used to evaluate the various economic and embodied land resources flows. Furthermore, the revised Resources Terms of Trade (RTT) indicator is used to identify embodied (also defined as virtual) land resources’ loss or gain for identical economic international trade values.Key Findings: In general, for every unit of monetary gain from international trade, African countries lose land resources benefits to high-income countries. Yet, African countries do gain land resources from international trade with low-income countries.