Removing Trade Barriers amongst Counties in West Africa

Removing Trade Barriers amongst Counties in West Africa

By E. Stanley Ukeni

My passion for this topic is born out of my belief that regional trade between West African countries would play a crucial role in in guarantying the future prosperity of the more than three hundred and sixty-six million inhabitants of the West African region.

After reading this post I hope you would decide to join the initiative to facilitate the permanent removal of cross-border trade barriers between member States which is being championed by ECOWAS and the West African Economic and Monetary Union.

As we may all already be aware of, the ECOWAS organization was established to encourage trade liberalization amongst West African countries. The acronym (ECOWAS) literal stands for Economic Community of West African States.

And according to the second chapter of the organization’s mission statement, the stated goals of the regional institution includes;

·         Enabling social and economic integration and political cooperation amongst West African States.

 

·         Giving rise to an economic union in West Africa as a means of improving the living standards of its peoples.

·         Maintaining and enhancing economic stability.

·         Sustaining relations between member States—with an aim to scale this initiative continental-wide.

However, as should be obvious to even a most casual observer, the organization is yet to actualize this stated goal of regional economic integration.

It is unfortunate that the ECOWAS region has maintained a meager ten to fifteen percent intra-regional trade volumes since the inception of the regional economic bloc in 1975, while the likes of the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the South American Economic Organization has spurred an impressive intra-regional trade volumes well in the excess of seventy percent.

We can all attest to the fact that some of the main impediments to effective cross-border trade include, road harassment, demands for bribes, export restrictions, certificate of origins, veterinary certificates and value added taxes on foodstuffs. Needless to say that the above mentioned challenges contribute immensely to the often incessant bottlenecks that regional importers and exporters face at border posts.

With this in mind, we urge ECOWAS member countries to accelerate their efforts at harmonizing and implementing national economic policies that remove all barriers impeding trade and commerce within the African sub-region—with an aim of enhancing regional trade and spurring economic growth.

Although ECOWAS member States have entered into numerous trade and economic protocols, conventions and agreements, there has been a lack of political will on the part of many of the governments of member States to enforce their implementation.

Examples of these agreements and protocols include; the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme—a protocol which allows citizens of member countries to move freely between member countries, with their goods, without obstacle or tariffs; ECOWAS protocol/ supplementary protocol on free movement of persons, residence and establishment; ECOWAS convention on inter-State road transportation; and Convention on mutual administrative assistance on customs matters.

Although these agreements, protocols and conventions remains legally binding on paper, the unfortunate lack of political desire, on the part of requisite State authorities to implement these multilateral agreements and conventions that they are signatories to, have rendered the protocols inert and ineffective at best.

In light of the above mentioned challenges, we here offer the following recommendations as part of our effort to contribute to the reform agenda needed to address the wide range of constraints and challenges impeding liberalized cross-border trade and commerce amongst ECOWAS countries;

·         We are of the opinion that across the board trade liberalization and harmonization policies has to involve the reduction of the steep financial costs of clearing goods, and the streamlining of customs practices in other to reduce the time spent on clearing goods would help alleviate some of the key challenges that mitigate against effective intra-regional trade—including tariff and non-tariff barriers.

·         We feel that it is not enough to merely focus on the phasing out of tariffs on food produce and goods manufactured within the region, it is equally necessary to address the constraints to effectively move goods across borders. This calls for regulatory and customs reforms, and the needs for adequate training of regulatory enforcers.  

·         We feel that it is essential that the economic integration agenda cover issues pertaining to the service sector, as much as it does the free movement of goods. This is because the service sector in very important to raising the quality of living of the citizenry. Qualified individuals must be able and easily relocate to where the jobs are.

·         In other to achieve the above mentioned objective, member States need to evolve standard regulatory frameworks for accrediting the qualifications of professionals. This would enable highly qualified African doctors, nurses, teacher, engineers and lawyers to practice anywhere in the sub-region, irrespective of their nation of origin.

 

Even as we highlight some of the challenges and constraints hindering intra-regional trade and commerce in the West African sub-region, there are a number of noteworthy developments that needs to be acknowledged.

In November 3^rd of 2015, the government of Côte d’Ivoire issued a directive prohibiting its border officials from demanding certificate of origins for agricultural produce being imported into the country.

On the 3^rd of February 2016, Burkina Faso’s customs office issued a new policy directive that effectively bans border officials from demanding certificate of origin for agricultural importers at Burkinabe borders.

In recent months, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Niger Republic inaugurated the Zinder-Daura-Jigawa-Kano trade corridor in other to stimulate free trade between the two countries. The much needed cross-border trade would accord the citizens of both countries access to agricultural, livestock and manufactured goods at competitive price. 

These new trade policy directives will greatly facilitate the free movement and trade of food crops between Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire there by putting downwards pressure on the cost of food in both countries.

Although these are small steps, they are nonetheless steps in the right direction. We hope other West African States emulate these laudable examples—because the hope of delivering sustainable prosperity to the citizenry of West African States depends on it.

Authored by E. Stanley Ukeni, Copyright © 2016. All Rights Reserved.

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