Draft

The link between trade liberalization and poverty reduction is more or less ambigious. For the case of African countries, this study tries to answer the following questions: Will multilateral trade liberalization under the Doha Development Agenda reduce poverty in Africa? To what extent will households be affected by changes in global trade liberalization? Results of simulations using the MIRAGE global dynamic computable general equilibrium linked to household measures suggest that trade liberalization has only modest effects in reducing poverty in most of the African countries covered by this study. However, the effect on poverty is not homogeneous across countries, as some of them will experience an increase in poverty rates rather than a decline. Moreover, the adoption of alternative fiscal policies to compensate for the loose in trade revenue for the government will amplifies the effects on poverty without changing its direction