IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mgs/ijmsba/v8y2021i2p33-47.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trade Relations and Trade Openness amongst the ECOWAS Member Nations

Author

Listed:
  • Kanu Success Ikechi

    (Department of Banking and Finance, Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe University (KOMU), Ogboko, P.M.B 6, Orlu Imo State. Nigeria)

  • Akuwudike Hillary Chinedum

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe University (KOMU), Ogboko, P.M.B 6, Orlu Imo State. Nigeria)

  • Ngozi Amaka Nwokoro

    (Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe University (KOMU), Ogboko, P.M.B 6, Orlu Imo State. Nigeria)

Abstract

This study is necessitated by the belief that, there is an improved trade relation amongst West African countries following the establishment of a Regional Economic Community– the ECOWAS. In this regard, so much has been said about the trade bloc, but we are yet to feel its impact on the regional economy. Thus, this study is set to ascertain the nature of trade relations, impediments to trade and means of improving on trade liberalization within the sub–region .An ex-post facto research study was adopted in the study. It made use of secondary data for the period 2000 to 2019. Descriptive statistics, percentages and granger causality tests were utilized in estimating the time-series statistics. Outcome of the study indicates that there is still a low level of trade amongst the ECOWAS member states. The average total imports and exports from the ECOWAS trading bloc for the period under review stood at 7.1% and 20.10% respectively. This is considered rather poor! Reasons adduced to this effect are that regional trading arrangements still retains the specified patterns which consist of primary products and assume low levels of international sale. The sub-regional sale volume is low as they export raw materials and not processed goods. There is little that they are interested in importing from each other. Again because of the limited diversity of products, the same primary products also tend to dominate her trade with the rest of the world. It was also ascertained that there is a low level of trade liberalization within the ECOWAS sub region. Most of the member states were ranked lowest in terms of trade openness in the continent and the world at large. The study therefore recommends that apart from the new wave of increased interest in regional integration and removal of trade barriers, there is need for a major shift – ECOWAS member nations must play down on the continued dominance of primary production, export and low value addition. Regional trades need to be driven by a diversified production structure essentially driven by growth in manufacturing that would deliver lots of jobs, raise productivity and incomes; else intra regional trade will remain fragile, unadoptable and therefore more susceptible to major disruptions. Poor trade relations are likely to persist in the sub–region without a robust manufacturing sector where innovation and technology would improve value addition and raise productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Kanu Success Ikechi & Akuwudike Hillary Chinedum & Ngozi Amaka Nwokoro, 2022. "Trade Relations and Trade Openness amongst the ECOWAS Member Nations," International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration, Inovatus Services Ltd., vol. 8(2), pages 33-47, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:mgs:ijmsba:v:8:y:2021:i:2:p:33-47
    DOI: 10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.82.1004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://researchleap.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/04_Trade-Relations-and-Trade-Openness-amongst-the-ECOWAS-Member-Nations.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://researchleap.com/trade-relations-and-trade-openness-amongst-the-ecowas-member-nations/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.82.1004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:aer:wpaper:84 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Claudius Gräbner & Philipp Heimberger & Jakob Kapeller & Florian Springholz, 2021. "Understanding economic openness: a review of existing measures," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 157(1), pages 87-120, February.
    3. Steve Dowrick & Jane Golley, 2004. "Trade Openness and Growth: Who Benefits?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 20(1), pages 38-56, Spring.
    4. Ogunkola, E.O., 1998. "An Empirical Evaluation of Trade Potential in the Economic Community of West African States," Papers 84, African Economic Research Consortium.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shaukat, Badiea & Zhu, Qigui & Khan, M. Ijaz, 2019. "Real interest rate and economic growth: A statistical exploration for transitory economies," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 534(C).
    2. T. Gries & R. Grundmann & I. Palnau & M. Redlin, 2017. "Innovations, growth and participation in advanced economies - a review of major concepts and findings," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 293-351, April.
    3. Philipp Heimberger, 2022. "Does economic globalisation promote economic growth? A meta‐analysis," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(6), pages 1690-1712, June.
    4. Viengsaythong DALASENG & NIU Xiongying & Khaysy SRITHILAT, 2022. "Cross- Country Investigation of the Impact of Trade Openness and FDI on Economic Growth: A Case of Developing Countries," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 9(1), pages 49-73.
    5. Rangan Gupta & Lardo Stander & Andrea Vaona, 2023. "Openness and growth: Is the relationship non‐linear?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 3071-3099, July.
    6. Graafland, J.J., 2008. "Market operation and distributive justice: An evaluation of the ACCRA confession," MPRA Paper 20276, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Michael Bleaney & Mo Tian, 2023. "The trade‐GDP ratio as a measure of openness," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 1319-1332, May.
    8. Anton Gerunov, 2014. "Openness and Growth : An Empirical Investigation on a Panel of Countries over the Period 1999–2009," Yearbook of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski - Bulgaria, vol. 12(1), pages 107-125, March.
    9. Dingru, Liu & Onifade, Stephen Taiwo & Ramzan, Muhammad & AL-Faryan, Mamdouh Abdulaziz Saleh, 2023. "Environmental perspectives on the impacts of trade and natural resources on renewable energy utilization in Sub-Sahara Africa: Accounting for FDI, income, and urbanization trends," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    10. Kim, Dong-Hyeon & Lin, Shu-Chin & Suen, Yu-Bo, 2016. "Trade, growth and growth volatility: New panel evidence," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 384-399.
    11. Makhlouf, Yousef & Kellard, Neil M. & Vinogradov, Dmitri, 2015. "Trade openness, export diversification, and political regimes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 25-27.
    12. Emmanuel Olajide Adebayo, 2019. "Trade Trend and Sustainable Development in Nigeria," Business & Management Compass, University of Economics Varna, issue 4, pages 294-308.
    13. Reto Foellmi & Manuel Oechslin, 2020. "Harmful Procompetitive Effects of Trade in Presence of Credit Market Frictions," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(6), pages 1493-1525, September.
    14. Bilal Mehmood & Haider Mahmood, 2014. "Broadband-Growth Relationship in Asian Perspective: A Revisit Using System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and Panel Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (Pfmols)," International Journal of Economics and Empirical Research (IJEER), The Economics and Social Development Organization (TESDO), vol. 2(6), pages 229-237, June.
    15. Akihiko Yanase & Yukio Karasawa-Ohtashiro, 2019. "Endogenous time preference, consumption externalities, and trade: multiple steady states and indeterminacy," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 126(2), pages 153-177, March.
    16. Boris Cota & Nataša Erjavec & Saša Jakšić, 2024. "Income inequality, economic openness and current account imbalances in new EU member states," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 51(2), pages 403-423, May.
    17. Philémon Votsoma & Votsoma Djekna & Itchoko Motande Mondjeli Mwa Ndjokou, 2024. "Trade openness and economic growth in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community: Is a review of the empirical evidence worthwhile? [Ouverture commerciale et croissance économique dans la ," Post-Print hal-04560475, HAL.
    18. Sylvanus Kwaku Afesorgbor, 2013. "Revisiting the Effectiveness of African Economic Integration. A Meta-Analytic Review and Comparative Estimation Methods," Economics Working Papers 2013-13, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    19. Timothy J. Kehoe & Kim J. Ruhl, 2010. "Why Have Economic Reforms in Mexico Not Generated Growth?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 1005-1027, December.
    20. Sambit Bhattacharyya & Steve Dowrick & Jane Golley, 2009. "Institutions and Trade: Competitors or Complements in Economic Development?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 85(270), pages 318-330, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    International trade; Export; Import; Trade Openness; Trade liberalization and ECOWAS;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M00 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - General - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mgs:ijmsba:v:8:y:2021:i:2:p:33-47. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bojan Obrenovic (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://researchleap.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.