Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Food Security Group

IDWP 80. Kofi Nouve, John Staatz, David Schweikhardt, and Mbaye Yade. 2002. 36 pp. Trading out of Poverty: WTO Agreements and the West African Agriculture. A Report of the Food Security II Cooperative Agreement

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The West African agricultural economy, like many economies in Sub-Sahara Africa, is part of a
global, complex, and increasingly integrated agricultural system. The interdependence between
domestic, regional and foreign agricultural production and trade policies now plays a central role
in the development of the agricultural sector in West Africa, and elsewhere in Africa. Since
January 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been the main international body that is
trying to structure and manage various interdependencies in the world trading system. This
report is a brief survey of WTO agreements and their implications for the West African
economies (including Chad).

The study reviews the positions of West African countries on various WTO issues and compares
these positions with positions expressed by major trade partners, particularly the Cairns Group,
the European Union, Japan, Sub-Sahara Africa, and the United States. In total, 27 African
countries, including 8 from West Africa, are covered in the study, which also reviews all official
statements made by these countries at WTO fora between 1999 and 2002. The issues position
matrices (in Tables 4 and 5), which are the first ones put together for the West African region,
clearly reveal the similarity of concerns among the countries in the subregion.