Country Information - Cameroon

ECONOMIC BACKGROUND The economy is mainly agricultural. The principal commercial crops are cocoa, coffee, tobacco, cotton and bananas. Petroleum products make up more than half of all exports. Timber is also a major export. In the early 1980s, Cameroon was one of Africa's economic success stories. However, underlying economic and policy weaknesses were exposed in 1985 when sharp declines in coffee, cocoa and oil prices led to a 60 percent degeneration in the external terms of trade. In addition to this severe terms of trade shock and the over-valued exchange rate up to 1994, Cameroon's economic depression was also caused by a fiscal crisis and, until about four years ago, economic mismanagement. The government was slow to carry out necessary structural reforms which would have enabled it to benefit more from the January 1994 devaluation of the CFA franc. Since late 1996, Cameroon changed course and committed itself to correcting the years of economic mismanagement. Macroeconomic performance has been satisfactory since 1996 with growth rates rising to almost 5 percent during 1996-2000. Encouraging progress has been made in macroeconomic stability, public finance, relations with external creditors, restructuring the banking system, privatization, economic liberalization, transportation, and forestry. This "first generation" of reforms has shown the government's commitment to revamping the economy and to creating a more conducive basis for sustained growth. However, economic reform has so far brought few tangible benefits for the poor. Poverty reduction continues to be a daunting challenge with dilapidated physical infrastructure and poor public delivery of basic social services. (Source: World Bank Group) Click here for Country Map [23kB]

BI-LATERAL TRADE OVERVIEW Bi-lateral trade between Cameroon and the United States has been increasing steadily in recent years. The country currently records a trade deficit with the U.S., which during 2002 amounted to approximately $ 17 million (2001: $ 80 million). This is in contrast to the trade surplus recorded in 2000, and follows a significant decrease in exports to the U.S., and a concurrent 3-fold increase in imports from that country in 2001. Full year data for 2002 shows a significant reversal of this trend. Cameroon exports some of its output duty-free to the U.S. under AGOA, although these exports (amounting to $ 115 million in 2002 and $ 37 million in 2001) consisted almost solely of energy-related products (e.g. oil)(see link to Country Trade Profile below). In 2002, over 80% of Cameroon's energy-related exports to the U.S. were AGOA eligible (up from 40% the previous year), while this category accounted for approximately 80% of Cameroon's total exports to the U.S. during 2002. Detailed bilateral trade data for this country, disaggregated by industry sector, can be accessed by following the link below. Aggregate data featuring all AGOA-eligible countries is updated on this website as soon as new data is published, including ranked AGOA / non-AGOA trade, aggregate trade by industry sector as well as the latest apparel trade data. Click here for Detailed Trade Profile