Abstract
The advent of technological advancement, digital commerce, and increased trade integration has continued to strengthen South-South regional trade institutions, partnerships, and capacities. With Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) now accounting for a substantive share of the global gross domestic product (GDP) and the robust economic growth and trade expansion being experienced in Africa, collaboration between governments, regulators, and organized private sectors is crucial for enhancing trade facilitation capacities in Africa. However, the continent and its sub-regions are continually being confronted by increasing trade costs arising from non-tariff sources, such as inefficient transportation, weak logistics infrastructure, cumbersome regulatory procedures, lengthy customs processes, and incoherent business documentation, thereby placing Africa at a competitively disadvantaged position. While discussing selected regional integration and development initiatives in West Africa, the article expatiates on the strategic importance of advancing trade facilitation agenda in the face of increasing non-tariff measures (NTMs) and the ongoing African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) negotiations.
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- 1.
In June 2007, the ECOWAS Authority adopted ECOWAS Vision 2020, which is aimed at setting a clear direction and goal to significantly raise the standard of living of the people through conscious and inclusive programs that will guarantee a bright future for West Africa, and shape the destiny of the region for many years to come – http://www.ecowas.int/about-ecowas/vision-2020/.
- 2.
UNECA/AUC/AfDB’s Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA) IV – Enhancing Intra-African Trade, 2011. Available online at http://www.uneca.org/aria4/ARIA4Full.pdf.
- 3.
The Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC) comprises a group of West African regional organizations, countries, and international organizations that work together towards the development and integration of the West African region.
- 4.
ECOWAS covers all the 15 West African countries. However, Mauritania withdrew in 2000. For an extensively detailed account of the efforts targeted at regional integration in West Africa, see Yakubu, Gowon. 1984. ‘The Economic Community of West African States: A Study in Political and Economic Integration’. 3 Volumes, 793 pp., University of Warwick, United Kingdom. The electronic version of the doctoral thesis is available at http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/4397/1/WRAP_THESIS_Gowon_1984.pdf.
- 5.
UEMOA covers the eight French-speaking West African countries, which include Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Togo, and Senegal.
- 6.
CILSS covers the Sahelian countries in West Africa.
- 7.
The quest for regional integration stems from a desire to minimize the cost of trade between nations and facilitate market access and growth for the region’s industries, as well as to strengthen the economic power of the combined member states vis-à-vis third parties. Further, it is a developmental necessity in relation to trade, economic performance, and strengthening of policy credibility and effectiveness. In other words, strong organizational and institutional initiatives, which are targeted at regional integration will expand the scope of increased intra-regional trade, improved regional infrastructure, more efficient administrative systems, higher levels of investment and industrialization, and reduced political contamination of macroeconomic policies and programmes.
- 8.
ECOWAS was founded on May 28, 1975, when the geopolitically related Anglophone, Lusophone, and Francophone countries signed the Treaty of Lagos. It comprises 16 member countries. These member countries are Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone (Non-CFA countries) and Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo (CFA countries) as well as Mauritania.
- 9.
The achievement of these goals will be driven through the implementation of a free trade area and a custom union (elimination of custom duties, quantitative and administrative restrictions to trade, establishment of a common external tariff), the creation of a common market (elimination of all obstacles to the free movement of persons, capital, and services), and the creation of an economic union (harmonization of economic, agricultural, industrial, and monetary policies, and the establishment of a fund for cooperation and development).
- 10.
The CFA franc is the name of two currencies used in parts of West and Central African countries which are guaranteed by the French treasury.
- 11.
However, this may change with the current Tripartite Agreement between EAC, COMESA, and SADC.
- 12.
Regarding its procedures for accepting and implementing decisions, UEMOA responds to requests from states who want greater regional coherence on particular policy issues. If the request is accepted, UEMOA engages in a series of workshops at the national and regional levels to ensure the harmonization of texts specific to the policy area. The executing organ—UEMOA Commission—then passes the finalized text to the Council of Ministers, which examines how to finance the activity in a manner that does not jeopardize the region’s macroeconomic stability. This Council consists of two ministers from each member state, one of whom is always the Minister of Finance, and meets at least twice a year. The decisions of this Council are determined according to the principle of unanimity and are subsequently imposed on the member states. If, however, a unanimous decision is not possible at this level, the issue is presented to the Conference of Heads of States, which consists of the presidents of the eight member states. This organ meets at least once a year and needs to abide by the principle of unanimity before a decision can be taken. Once a decision is made, it is binding on all member states. By contrast, the ECOWAS Executive Secretariat, which is the equivalent to the UEMOA Commission, must submit all decisions, acts, and protocols to a highly involved ratification process that ultimately decreases the number of programmes that are actually implemented (Odularu 2013).
- 13.
During the last four decades, ECOWAS has made quite considerable strides towards the achievement of its goals – tariffs on intra-regional trade have been consistently reduced; free movement of designated goods; and reduction of customs duties and adoption of ECOWAS passport/travel documents.
- 14.
The classification used for these statistics follows the ISIC Rev. 2 industrial classification, which categorizes refined oil as a manufactured product while crude oil is classified as a mining product.
- 15.
The full implementation of the TFA is estimated to reduce global trade costs by an average of 14.3 per cent, with African countries and least developed countries (LDCs) forecast to enjoy the biggest average reduction in trade costs. Full implementation has also been found to potentially reduce the average time needed to import by 47 per cent. Cuts in export time will be even more dramatic with estimates predicting a 91 per cent reduction of the current average.
- 16.
The WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) was adopted in December 2013 at the WTO’s Ninth Ministerial Conference, held in Bali, Indonesia, under the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). The TFA entered into force on February 22, 2017.
- 17.
Formalities connected with Importation, Exportation, and Transit.
- 18.
Paperless trade allows for the coherent flow of trade activities on the basis of electronic rather than paper documents. In other words, it provides the ecosystem where regulatory, legal, and technical tools enhance paperless trade transactions via an electronic single window facility, electronic port management systems, electronic certificate of origin, electronic customs declaration, document simplification and data harmonization, and so on.
- 19.
A facility that allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge (once) all the standardized information and documents with a single-entry point to fulfil all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements. From the traders’ viewpoint, it results in increased integrity and transparency, reduced costs and delays, efficient allocation of resources, predictable rules, and faster clearances.
- 20.
Cross-Border Regulatory Agencies (CBRA) includes inter alia ministries focusing on trade, industry, tourism, agriculture, finance, mines, parks and wildlife, pharmacy, roads, immigration, border police,
- 21.
Non-tariff measures (NTMs) capture all government measures, other than tariffs or customs taxes, which restrict international commerce between domestic and imported goods and services. NTMs can be described as policy measures that are outside the usual Customs tariffs but still have an economic impact on trade internationally. There are the traditional trade instruments, like quotas or trade defence measures. These measures can be said to be non-tariff barriers (NTBs) because of their discriminatory and protective nature. Very importantly, NTMs are made up of policies that arise from non-trade objectives and are applied to both foreign and domestic producers in an effort to protect against health or environmental risks. Since such measures may affect trade, their application is regulated in WTO agreements.
- 22.
With Phase One almost concluded, Phase Two negotiations are expected to begin in late 2018 and focusing on provisions for investment, competition policy, and intellectually property rights.
- 23.
Though the US-China trade war has been looming since March 2018, the trade dispute effectively started on July 6, 2018. The cause of the dispute is due to ‘Made in China 2025’, which aims to greatly improve the competitiveness of the Chinese manufacturing industry and enable China to become the world’s manufacturing powerhouse (Lui 2018).
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Odularu, G. (2019). Introduction: The Changing Landscape of Trade Facilitation and Regional Development Issues in West Africa. In: Odularu, G., Alege, P. (eds) Trade Facilitation Capacity Needs. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05946-0_1
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