Abstract

Around the world, the creation of regional economic communities attracted more attention in empirical analysis. Different techniques were used in order to assess the performances of trade taking place in the regional economic communities. This study applied such analysis to Burundi, concerning sugar imports from the East African Community. More specifically, this study determined the intensity of Burundi’s sugar imports and estimated the factors which influence Burundi’s sugar imports. Both the histograms and the gravity model were used to analyze the data collected from 2003 to 2018. In essence, the results indicated that Burundi intensively imported sugar from Kenya followed by Uganda. Moreover, the results revealed that the gross domestic products (GDPs), the distance and the exchange rates were the major factors influencing Burundi’s sugar imports. For instance, it was found that a 1% increase in the Burundian GDP leads to an expansion of sugar imports by 0.52%. Therefore, policy makers in Burundi should create a space that efficiently maximizes the intensity of sugar imports through attractive trade policies. Moreover, they should particularly put a rigorous control on GDPs, exchange rates and distance in order to enhance a smooth movement of sugar imports from the East African Community.

Key words: sugar; gravity model; intensity of imports; regional economic community; trade flows.