Chapter 3. Analytical review of national investment strategies and agricultural policies in West Africa 105
To do this, ECOWAS is planning to establish a single common tariff policy throughout its territory. The
drafting process of this policy is well underway. In February 2009, Member States agreed to the introduction
of a fifth tariff band at 35 percent, bringing the maximum protection for the countries of the Region to
35 percent. The challenge is mainly to identify what products are to be classified in the fifth tariff band
and what products will change category within the first four tariff bands of the Common External Tariff.
Establishing other trade defence measures is also planned, including protective measures that can cope
with imperfections and fluctuations of the international market. In 2006, ECOWAS experts proposed a
safeguard tax on imports (STI). However, it must be noted that these measures are somewhat offset by
those suggested by producer organizations that recommend the use of variable levies, by far the most
effective type of agricultural protection. Better still, farmer organizations require prior determination of
common consolidated tariffs for the entire Region in order not to freeze products in fixed band custom
duties. All this must be accompanied by registering ECOWAS’s Customs Union as a legal personality of
the WTO to negotiate on behalf of its 15 Member States.
Storage instruments. These are an important means to regulate and stabilize prices in domestic
markets. They are best suited to local non-perishable products such as millet / sorghum, roots and
tubers, generally considered as non-tradable. Stocks can also regulate intra-annual price variations. This
strategy aims to revitalize and strengthen the various initiatives undertaken by the regional network
of food security stocks (RESOGEST), producer organizations (bundling, warrantage, management
cooperatives, mini foodstuff exchanges, etc.) and private operators. These can be physical or virtual,
including financial, stocks.
Regarding other instruments, the following actions are planned:
a. Initiate a standardization process that involves defining product specifications (size, impurity content,
form, rate of broken rice for example), but also standardizing measurement systems used in periodic
traditional markets. This can help to reduce price fluctuations and improve the use of tools such as
storage. Standardization encourages developing commercial storage and getting credit institutions
involved because it provides a transparent basis for assessing a product stock’s value.
b. Boosting inter-branch organization schemes. These are one of the oldest market regulation
instruments, experienced in West Africa. All the sectors that were the jewels of West African
agriculture were managed by inter-branch organizations: cocoa, coffee, cotton. These vary from one
country to another, with inter-branch organizations that act as agencies, such as the Agricultural
Markets Regulatory Agency of Senegal, cocoa “Boards” in Ghana and Nigeria, and consultation
and coordination marketing boards in Burkina Faso for shea butter and milk.
c. In recent years, local food products, such as rice, with major economic and food challenges, have
gradually been more managed by inter-branch organizations. These aim at removing bottlenecks
that hinder the agricultural sector’s development by promoting collective actions: access to inputs
and factors of production, marketing infrastructure (roads and storage facilities), primary collection,
price level, etc.
d. Public policy choices involved in promoting agriculture overall as well as specific sectors cover all
dimensions. But it is clear that they tended to be more efficient for export sectors such as cocoa and
cotton for which West Africa occupies a prominent place at the global level. Most public incentives
have focused on these sectors as they brought foreign exchange to governments.