Study on the Impact of Ecowas Treaty on the Dynamics of Food Trade among Ecowas Member States

The study analysed the impact of ECOWAS treaty on the dynamics of food trade among ECOWAS member states. The specific objectives of the study were to: assess the effects of ECOWAS treaty on food trade among Member States; estimate the actual and potential level of food trade in the ECOWAS region; determine the comparative advantage of each ECOWAS country in food trade within the region; and to evaluate the level of food trade diversification in the ECOWAS region before and after the treaty. The study used secondary data which covered a period of 49 years between 1970 and 2018. Overall Openness Index, Intensity of Trade Index, Indicative Trade Potential index, the Revealed Comparative Advantage Index, Herfindahl index and the paired sample t-test were the analytical techniques employed to achieve the objectives of the study. The study revealed that countries of the region are fairly open to food trade but the smaller countries (in terms of economic mass), are more open to trade than the larger economies. The regional trade intensities (both on the export and import side of food trade) for all the member states were higher after the region became a free trade area (FTA). However, countries of the region are yet to fully exploit their potentials in food trade within the region; and between 1970 and 2018, food export by all the member countries represented only 5.0% of the ECOWAS regional trade. It was concluded that a significant difference (p = 0.046) still exists between the actual and potential level of food trade, while food trade diversification has significantly increased (p = 0.009) after the treaty within the region. Therefore, ECOWAS treaty has impacted positively on food trade within the region. It was recommended that policy reforms that will promote intra regional food trade should be facilitated in all the ECOWAS Member States.