**1. Introduction**

Trade liberalization is a cardinal principle of the World Trade Organization (WTO), though its origin could be traced to the structural adjustment programmes of the international financial institutions (The World Bank and the IMF) in their attempts to incorporate developing countries into the capitalist development paradigm. In order to hasten this process of incorporation, countries, especially from the developing world, were mandated to liberalize their economies, including their trade relations with the rest of the world. Thus, every member country of the world trade body, while acceding to the document that embodies the WTO agreement, undertakes to liberalize its trade, especially trade in agriculture. Developing

countries in particular are being encouraged to liberalize their agricultural trade in order to maximize abundant food and foreign exchange earnings for their evergrowing population.

Agriculture is a very important sector for West African countries. In addition to being the biggest employer of labour in the ECOWAS region, constituting 60% of the active labour force, and also representing about 35% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the region [1], agricultural exports constitute an important element of West Africa's foreign trade. With the exception of Nigeria that its main trade commodity in the international market is crude oil, agriculture constitutes the major trade commodity between West African countries and the rest of the world. More importantly, it is a vital factor in efforts by the region to combat poverty and food insecurity.

However, the importance of agriculture to West Africa as enumerated above notwithstanding, two major worrying trends have been noticed in West Africa's agricultural trade performance in the international market. First, despite the majority of its population being engaged in agricultural activities, many of the countries in West Africa are food insecure. In other words, there is food security crisis in the subregion. Second, despite the fact that agriculture constitutes its main trade commodity in the international market, West Africa's food imports have been on the increase.

Available evidence suggests that trade liberalization, instead of addressing these issues as promised by the international financial institutions, reinforces them. This is because the policy promotes unfair trade practices such as dumping, which undermines food security in developing countries. The policy also encourages food importation from developed countries, thereby undermining food self-sufficiency strategy of most developing countries, especially in West Africa. In other words, it has made many West African countries to depend on importation in order to meet their food requirements.

The role of international trade in this importation and redistribution of food from food-surplus regions to food-deficit regions cannot be over-emphasised. This is where the WTO, being the only prevailing international organization charged with the regulation of international trade, comes in. Through its Agreement on Agriculture, the WTO, therefore, has an undisputed international legal authority to make certain policies relating to food security, like other food and agriculture-based organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO], the World Food Programme [WFP], and the International Fund for Agricultural Development [IFAD]. Thus, since the WTO was institutionalised in 1995, it has been playing increasing role in global food governance through its Agreement on Agriculture. The trade liberalization policy has been the driving force of this agreement.

In West Africa, there are three major agro-ecological zones—the Sahelian, Sudanese, and Coastal zones—where production and consumption of food staples can be easily classified. In the Sahelian zone (northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, central Mali, northern Burkina Faso, Niger, Cape Verde and extreme north of Nigeria), the main cereal cultivated by most farmers is millet. However, in Cape Verde, rice and maize are mostly cultivated. In Mauritania, maize and sorghum are mostly cultivated. In Senegal, rice production is dominant. The principal alternatives are cassava floor, rice and sorghum. In the Sudanese zone (Southern Chad, Central Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, southern Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia) maize and sorghum are the principal cereals consumed by most of the population, followed by rice, cassava, and yam. In the Coastal zone—with two rainy seasons—(Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and southern Nigeria) yam and maize are the most important food products, supplemented by cowpea [2].

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*World Trade Organization's Trade Liberalization Policy on Agriculture and Food Security…*

trade to help assure its food security [3]. In other words, the region has always depended on food importation to provide sustainable supply of food for its population. The questions emanating from this fact are: why is this so since agricultural products remain the major item in West Africa's export basket? Why do West African countries still grapple with food security issues when the majority of its active labour force is engaged in agriculture? These issues make a good case study in West Africa's experience in multilateral trade in agriculture, especially as it affects its food security. Meanwhile, extant literature has mainly attributed food insecurity in West Africa and other subregions in the developing world to issues relating to unfriendly weather conditions, lack of research and development (R&D) in agriculture, lack of investments in the sector and many other reasons. Thus, the link between WTO's trade liberalization policy on agriculture and food security problems in West African countries is yet to be adequately explored and given systematic treatment in extant literature. Against this background, this study intends to examine the role of WTO's trade liberalization

policy on agriculture in undermining food security in West Africa.

was also explored. Section 6 concludes the chapter.

**2. Materials and methods**

As noted above, West Africa has historically relied on international and regional

The chapter is divided into six sections. Following this introduction is Section 2, which discusses the materials and methods used for the study. Section 3 gives an overview of the WTO's trade liberalization policy while Section 4 explores the link between trade liberalization, food importation and food security in West Africa. In Section 5, the nexus between trade liberalization, food dumping and food security

The study relied on documentary evidence (secondary data). These were data sourced by extracting relevant information from other sources and previous studies. These documents were mainly annual publications of the WTO that contained information on trade liberalization; UNCTAD's documents that analysed key statistics and trends in international trade, trade performance and commodity dependence, export performance and trade liberalization, as well as other topics covered in its annual *Economic Development in Africa* series. Also used were The World Bank's publications on food security and FAO's *The State of Food Insecurity in the World.* Furthermore, ECOWAS publications such as ECOWAS Agricultural Policy were utilized. Other secondary sources such as text books, journal articles and other written works sourced from libraries were also utilized. Finally, the study also made extensive use of internet materials that contained information on trade liberalization and food security. These documents are already in the public domain.

What the authors did was to refine, interpret, evaluate and analyse them.

**3. Overview of WTO's trade liberalization policy**

To analyse our data, we used content analysis, rooted on systematic logical deductions. This meant that we organised and synthesised the large volumes of textual data we generated from all the documents mentioned above, with a view to searching for patterns and discerning what was relevant from the documents. In other words, we systematically reduced the documents to logical, meaningful and coherent interpretation, and on the basis that drew our inferences and conclusions. Figures were used where necessary to enhance clarity of thought and presentation.

Trade liberalization means removing or reducing restrictions or impediments to the free movement or exchange of goods between and among countries. This

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86558*

#### *World Trade Organization's Trade Liberalization Policy on Agriculture and Food Security… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86558*

As noted above, West Africa has historically relied on international and regional trade to help assure its food security [3]. In other words, the region has always depended on food importation to provide sustainable supply of food for its population. The questions emanating from this fact are: why is this so since agricultural products remain the major item in West Africa's export basket? Why do West African countries still grapple with food security issues when the majority of its active labour force is engaged in agriculture? These issues make a good case study in West Africa's experience in multilateral trade in agriculture, especially as it affects its food security. Meanwhile, extant literature has mainly attributed food insecurity in West Africa and other subregions in the developing world to issues relating to unfriendly weather conditions, lack of research and development (R&D) in agriculture, lack of investments in the sector and many other reasons. Thus, the link between WTO's trade liberalization policy on agriculture and food security problems in West African countries is yet to be adequately explored and given systematic treatment in extant literature. Against this background, this study intends to examine the role of WTO's trade liberalization policy on agriculture in undermining food security in West Africa.

The chapter is divided into six sections. Following this introduction is Section 2, which discusses the materials and methods used for the study. Section 3 gives an overview of the WTO's trade liberalization policy while Section 4 explores the link between trade liberalization, food importation and food security in West Africa. In Section 5, the nexus between trade liberalization, food dumping and food security was also explored. Section 6 concludes the chapter.
