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A Note on West Arican Economic Co-operation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Robert L. Curry Jr
Robert L. Curry Jr
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, California StateUniversity at Sacramento
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Extract

Recent articles by André Simmons and K. M. Barbour have analysed the various advantages of, and strategies for, regional economic integration in West Africa.1 This note focuses on the technical obstacles of full integration, and then on sub-regional economic co-operation as a more practical alternative.

How can one agree upon an accepted distribution of the benefits from regional economic integration? How could this be implemented among the West African countries ? These are the most difficult and contentious problems associated with forming and operating any customs union and free trade area among the developing countries. If an acceptable distribution of benefits does not come about, then ‘the operation of existing groupings may easily be rendered ineffective or, in extreme cases, they may collapse. The experience of the last few years demonstrates that this is not a remote possibility.’2

Type
Africana
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , March 1973 , pp. 136 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

Page 136 note 1 Simmons, André, ‘Economic Integration in West Africa’, in Western Political Quarterly (Salt Lake City), XXV, 2, 06 1972, pp. 295–304Google Scholar; and Barbour, K. M., ‘Industrialisation in West Africa: the need for sub-regional groupings within an integrated economic community’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), X, 3, 10 1972, pp. 357–62.Google Scholar

Page 136 note 2 Robson, Peter, Current Problems of Economic Integration (United Nations, New York, 1971), p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 136 note 3 Ibid. p. 2.

Page 136 note 4 See Robson, Peter, Economic Integration in Africa (London, 1949), chs. 1–4.Google Scholar

Page 136 note 5 Robson, Peter, ‘Problems of Integration between Senegal and Gambia’, in Hazelwood, Arthur (ed.), African Integration and Disintegration (London, 1967), p. 126.Google Scholar See also Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, Report on the Alternatives of Association between the Gambia and Senegal (New York, 1964), pp. 1–13.Google Scholar

Page 137 note 1 Simmons, loc. cit. pp. 298–9; and Economic Commission for Africa, Economic Bulletin for Africa (Addis Ababa), IX, 1, 06 1969, pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

Page 137 note 2 Robson, Peter, Current Problems of Economic Integration, pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

Page 137 note 3 These methods are analysed by Robson, ibid. ch. v.

Page 137 note 4 Barbour, loc. cit. p. 358.

Page 137 note 5 The West African members of this Group and U.N.C.T.A.D. include Cameroun, Dahomey, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Upper Volta.

Page 138 note 1 See The Declaration and Principles of the Action Programme of Lima (Geneva, 1971), pp. 23–4.Google Scholar

Page 138 note 2 Thomsen, H. B., ‘The Africa Trade Centre’, in Journal of World Trade Law (Geneva), V, 3, 05–06 1971, p. 357.Google Scholar