Abstract

This paper examines the impact of Internet and e-commerce adoption on bilateral trade in 2014 using a panel of 21 middle- and low-income countries and 30 OECD countries. The empirical results indicate that access to the physical infrastructure for ITC and e-commerce improves export performance at various levels. This paper not only shows the important role of e-commerce in global trade, but also highlights its greater trade potentials for developing and
least- developed countries. Given the commitment of East African Community (EAC) to be the front-runner in the export-led economy across the African continent, a separate gravity model of trade is presented to analyse the relationship between the e-commerce adoption and EAC export performance with their trading partner countries.