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Despite the growing literature on the political economy of trade protectionism, little is known about the effect of twin deficit on trade restrictions in general around the world and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The aim of this study is to fill this gap by assessing how twin deficit affects trade restrictions in SSA. We used a panel of 16 countries which recorded simultaneously and successively the current account deficit and the budget deficit during the period 2008–2018. The empirical evidence is based on the system Generalized Method of Moment (GMM). Our results show that the twin deficit is responsible for the upsurge of trade protectionism in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]