Free trade area of the ECOWAS : an evaluation of its achievements and challenges (1990-2010) /
Third World Countries have been putting efforts since the 1950s in the area of regional economic integration. In the past three decades in particular, a great number of broadly defined Regional Integration schemes have been adopted by all the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and elsewhere amon...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Kuala Lumpur:
Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia ,
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://studentrepo.iium.edu.my/handle/123456789/6485 |
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| Summary: | Third World Countries have been putting efforts since the 1950s in the area of regional economic integration. In the past three decades in particular, a great number of broadly defined Regional Integration schemes have been adopted by all the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and elsewhere among the Third World Countries. Those Regional Integration efforts actually gave birth to the Economic Community of West African States famously known as ECOWAS. ECOWAS was established on May 28, 1975 in Nigeria with the starting members of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde Islands, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. At its onset, ECOWAS aspired to increase trade interaction between its members through certain objectives, such as the elimination of customs duties and other charges of equal effect in respect of the importation and exportation of goods between member states; abolition of quantitative and administrative restrictions on trade among the member states; establishment of a common customs tariff and a common commercial policy towards third countries; and abolition (as between the member states) of the obstacles inhibiting free movement of persons, goods, services and capital. Giving a new era to the organization, the ECOWAS members signed a revised ECOWAS treaty in 1993, in order to spur economic integration and political cooperation in the region. This study assesses the ECOWAS performance from 1990 to 2010 in the areas of trade integration. The study concludes that, despite the target to comparatively increase intra- ECOWAS trade, the volume of trade flow between ECOWAS member countries has been unsatisfactory, as the majority of the objectives of the regional trade integration in this region have not been realized. Secondly, the level of trade liberalization and intra-trade relations among the member states have still not improved. Therefore, the ECOWAS has failed to move towards achieving its Free Trade Area goals. |
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| Physical Description: | xv, 117 leaves : ill. ; 30cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-117). |