Madagascar: Intra-Africa trade and tariff profile

This Trade Data Update provides an overview of Madagascar’s intra-African trade relationships, both within the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and with other individual African countries; the top import and export products traded; and applicable tariffs. Data is sourced from the UN International Trade Centre (ITC) TradeMap and World Trade Organisation (WTO) Tariff databases. The update is accompanied by a visual representation of key data and trends in an infographic.

Intra-Africa trade

In 2017, Madagascar exported and imported goods to and from the rest of Africa to the value of US$0.4 billion and US$0.2 billion, respectively. Intra-Africa exports accounted for 8% of Madagascar’s total exports and imports for 11.2% of total imports for 2017.

• Madagascar’s main intra-Africa export product is vanilla. The top ten most exported products to Africa account for 5.3% of Madagascar’s total exports and 68.4% of intra-African exports.

• Madagascar mainly imports coal and briquettes from other African countries, which account for 1.4% of total intra-African imports. The top ten most imported products from Africa account for 6.2% of Madagascar’s total imports and 53.6% of total imports.

• Madagascar trades with South Africa and Mauritius the most, both as exporters and importers. South Africa mainly exports coal, briquettes and petroleum oils to Madagascar, whereas Mauritius exports fabrics, destined to the production of clothing such as T-shirts. Madagascar exports vanilla to Mauritius for the most part and cobalt mattes to South Africa.

Intra-Africa import tariffs

Most of the goods imported into Madagascar from other Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) member states enter duty-free. However, there are a few exceptions. For instance, petroleum oils from COMESA member states enter Madagascar free of duty, whereas SADC members face a 0.91% duty. Countries that are both members of SADC and COMESA do not face duties.

• African imports from outside COMESA and SADC are levied the MFN applied duty. The highest average MFN applicable duties are 20% on almost all imported products.

• Various products are imported free of duty. This includes pure-bred animals such as horses and buffalo; certain categories of cereals (including wheat, rye, oats, maize and rice); all pharmaceutical products (HS30) and fertilizers (HS31).