NEED FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF A SINGLE INSTITUTION AS A PARADIGM SHIFT FOR AFRICA’S TRADE GROWTH

Abstract

The jurisprudence of living in a world without poverty is one of the biggest legal assignments to be resolved by the global community. A world without poverty evidently is one of mankind’s elusive dreams and its realisation posed a danger  to  human  race.  After  independence,  most  countries  in  Africa  had  relied  on  foreign  aid  from  Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) for their economic  development but later realised that road taken is a thorny  one.  In the mid 90s the quest for trade in place of aid became rife amongst African states. The papers sets out to examine some basic rules of World Trade Organisation (WTO) and their effect on African trade; the paradox that more than any other continent, Africa is blessed with natural resources and ought to be a role model of human and economic development  to  other  countries  such  as  China,  India  and  South  Korea,  but  she  remains  poor  in  terms  of  human, economic, and institutional development. The paper finds that African trade growth experience is characterised by heavydebt burden, institutional decay and trade subservience under the rules of GATT as annexed to World Trade Organisation.  The  pepper  thereafter  concludes  that  Intra  African  Trade  Agreement  and  African  Continental  Free Trade Areas recently signed is not the solution to Africa’s trade growth as only a case of an old wine in new wine bottle. The paper concludes by suggesting that the solution to Africa’s trade development and growth lies in  the establishment of a single umbrella trade organisation