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Lobbying for trade barriers: a comparison of poultry producers' success in Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Martha C. Johnson
Martha C. Johnson*
Affiliation:
Department of Government, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland CA 94613, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Over the last two decades, developing countries have lowered trade barriers considerably. As a result, they have experienced a surge in food commodity imports. In Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon, a flood of frozen poultry imports in the late 1990s and early 2000s threatened domestic poultry producers. In response, they organised to demand protectionist measures. This article examines why the Cameroonian and Senegalese governments responded to these demands while the Ghanaian government did not. Employing data from interviews in Senegal, newspaper coverage in all three countries, and documentation from non-governmental organisations, it argues that Cameroonian, and to a lesser extent Senegalese, producers were able to influence government policy because they faced few barriers to collective action and built alliances with consumers before lobbying government. The findings suggest that a public choice, interest group-focused approach is still useful for explaining policy outcomes in West Africa.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 575 - 599
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

*

Special thanks to David Leonard, Jennifer Brass, Robin Turner and James Mahon for their very helpful comments on earlier versions of the text. In addition, the author thanks the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Early research on the topic was funded by the Food and Agriculture Organisation's Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Initiative; however, the opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not constitute in any way the official position of the FAO.

References

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Newspapers

Le Soleil, Dakar; Public Agenda, Accra; Spiegel Online; Sud Quotidien, Dakar; Walfadjri, Dakar.

Interviews

Anonymous A, veterinary science researcher, École Inter-États des Sciences et Médecine Vétérinaires, Dakar, 6.2003.

Anonymous B, FAFA representative, Dakar, 6.2003.

Anonymous C, poultry importer. Dakar, 6.2003.