INTRAREGIONAL TRADE IN WEST AFRICA - IMPACTS OF GHANA COCOA EXPORTS AND ECONOMIC-GROWTH

Agricultural trade between West African countries increased rapidly during the 1960s and early 1970s, but has been declining since the 1970s. This article uses available data on individual commodity imports to test whether the policy environment in Ghana influences its imports from regional markets. The result show that the dramatic fall in the country's imports of bovine cattle from the regional market has been largely caused by the decline in economic and export performance. The country's imports of rice and wheat are sensitive to real exchange rate and world market prices, implying that overvaluation of the national currency resulted in increased imports and consumption of these commodities to the disadvantage of grains produced in the region.