One country, Bangladesh, exports three times more apparel to the United States than all of Africa. [1] This statistics becomes more startling when we consider that 90% of African apparel exports go to the United States[2]. It is difficult to develop a thriving textile industry because Africa receives a little more than 3% of all the FDI that exists in the world which is half the amount of what goes to France  [2]. The FDI thing sounds weird but certainly Africans are simply exporting other products which they have a comparative advantage in, but then it turns out Africa has less than 3 percent of world trade [1] [2]. Africans are tied up through rules and regulations for example from the European Union, so it makes it harder for Africans to sell products on the world market. [3] For an interesting example there are some tropical fruit specialties you might want to enjoy but you'll have to pay more because of tariffs that go up to 146%![4] On many products tariffs go higher the more processed  the product is, one Swedish study said if "this tariff escalation were to be dismantled, this would give developing countries better conditions for processing the raw material themselves, and export the processed product instead".[5] Organic products sell well in Europe, and their are African farmers who want to sell organic products, but even when countries are allowed to trade with no tariffs many food stuffs have so many rules and regulations it often keeps these products out. [4] This is not just true for agricultural products as African textile producers find it extremely difficult and expensive to penetrate the European Union market and this is not simply because of tariffs. [3] Sugar has been sold to the European Union and then refined and then dumped on the world market, creating a glut and hurting the sugar industry in developing nations[6]

Raising Africa's share of world trade from 2 to 3 percent, that 1 percent increase could mean an additional $70,000,000,000 dollars in income, which is much more than what is given in aid [1]. Study suggests that. Developing nations all over the planet can earn twice as much from fair trade than they receive in aid at benefit rather than cost to consumers [7]

Sources:

[1] "Trade Is Key to Africa’s Economic Growth" 07/23/2009 From Office of the United States Trade Representative

http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/blog/trade-key-africa%E2%80%99s-economic-growth 

[2] "Globalization, Africa’s foe? Monday, January 18, 2010" . By Emmanuel Martin who is an an economist and Editor of the Francophone project

http://www.africanliberty.org/node/959

[3] EU, Asia free trade talks threaten Africa apparel exports Friday, 21 May 2010

http://www.africa-investor.com/article.asp?id=6940    

[4] "High duties keep food imports from poor countries out of Europe"

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5127705,00.html    


[5] "On the Road to Cancún: A Development Perspective on EU Trade Policies” By Faizel Ismail

Bottom of page 2 article says the EU has highest tariffs on goods exported from developing nations, especially from Africa

See bottom of page 3 and top of 4 on tariffs escalation with processed goods

Also see page 5 on clothing and textiles

http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000475/P433_Ismail.pdf

[6] "How an Addiction To Sugar Subsidies Hurts Development" Posted on January 26, 2005

http://www.globalenvision.org/library/15/722    

[7] "News Releases Global Free Trade Could Lift 500 Million People Out of Poverty" June 17, 2004, the article is talking about the work of William R. Cline this website is from Peterson Institute for International Economics

http://www.iie.com/publications/newsreleases/newsrelease.cfm?id=101  

Also read:

"US textile tariffs hurting poorest and Muslim countries, says think tank" Ibrahim_mahmood Aug 12, 2009

"Nicholas Kristof: Fight terrorism by building schools, lowering tariffs"  By Nicholas D. Kristof May 14, 2010