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Ecowas: The Ideals And Practice Of Regional Economic Integration
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1.4 Research Questions
The following research questions guided the formulation of objectives for the study:
i. What is the impact of Free Trade Areas and Common
External Tariffs on the free movement of goods and services within the
ECOWAS region?
ii. How has the West African Common
Industrial Policy (WACIP) contributed to regional industrial development
in the region?
iii. What is the impact of the
ECOWAS Regional Agricultural Investment Programme (RAIP) on the level of
food security in the region?
iv. How has the
implementation of the ECOWAS Programme for Infrastructure Development in
Africa (PIDA) contributed to the development of road and railway
infrastructures in the region?
v. What measures
should be employed by ECOWAS to deliver on its mandate of regional
economic integration for member states?
1.5 Significance of the Study
This
study will be useful to ECOWAS member states in identifying future
options open to them with regards to the benefits that come with the
effective implementation of the treaties and policies of the regional
body.
The findings of this study will be of immense importance to
scholars and graduate students intent to study the role of regional
economic integration in multi-cultural societies such as ECOWAS
sub-region and Africa in general.
The study will form a reference
material for students of international relations studies and public
administrators mainly in areas of regional economic integration. It will
also stimulate further studies on regional and economic integration
initiative as exemplified by ECOWAS.
1.6 Scope of the Study
This
study is focused on the role of ECOWAS in regional economic integration
among member states in the region. Specifically, the researcher
narrowed the domain to four as follows: trade, regional industrial
development, food security as well as road and railway infrastructures.
1.7 Definition of Key Concepts
Free
Trade Areas (FTAs): this can be referred to as a process to reduce or
abolish tariff and non-tariff restrictions to trade in goods and
services among a group of countries in a given geographical area.
Economic
Integration: this is referred to as the commercial policy of
discriminatively reducing or eliminating protectionist policies only
among participating countries.
Regionalisation: this can be defined
as the growth of societal integration within a region and to the often
undirected processes of social and economic interaction.
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