Drawing on overall trends in illicit financial flows out of Africa between 1980 and 2018, a recent Brookings Institute Africa Growth Initiative policy brief explains transfer pricing in a colder light. Using trade misinvoicing and net errors and omissions to calculate aspects of illicit financial flows between 1980 and 2018, the Brookings data show that sub-Saharan Africa received nearly $2 trillion in FDI but lost more than $1 trillion in outbound illicit financial flows. The top four emitters of illicit flows – South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia and Nigeria – account for more than 50% of total illicit financial flows from Africa (see Table 1). Reflecting the dramatic increase in China-Africa trade between 1980 and 2018, China hosted 16.6% of all estimated illicit flows from sub-Saharan African countries, almost double that of the United States (9.1 %). In its final report, the DTC pointed out that tax haven jurisdictions and harmful preferential tax regimes distort financial and investment flows among countries.