Abstract
The study
examines the rules and implications of the World Trade
Organization on Nigerian trade.
The study
has the following objectives; To examine the Implication of
World Trade Organization rules on Nigerian trade, To examine the effect of
trade liberalization on Nigerian trade.
Concerning
methodology, the population for the study was not large, and
data could be collected from all the respondents, the researcher adopted the
census sampling technique to successfully complete the study. All 65
respondents were used for this study. It also explained the
mode of data collection and analysis; Questionnaires were used to sample
people’s opinion while carrying out the survey. The researcher discarded the
secondary data designs so as to get new, accurate findings and data analysis on
the subject matter. Base on fining the
study has the sample size of sixty-five (65). Findings from
the study revealed the following; WTO plays a vital role in international
trade, WTO rules significantly influences Nigerian Trade, there are laid down
rules in world trading, trade liberalization has a positive impact on Nigerian
Trade, Nigerian trade has been boosted by the assistance of WTO rules.
Table of content
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.7 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 WORLD
TRADE ORGANISATION AGREEMENTS
2.3 DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AND WORLD TRADE
ORGANISATION
2.4 THE EXPERIECNE OF THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
2.5 NIGERIA’S EXPERIENCE WITH TRADE LIBERALIZATION
2.6 TRADE LIBERALIZATION ANDDE-INDUSTRIALIZATION
IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 INTRODUCTION
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN
3.3 POPULATION OF THE STUDY
3.4 POPULATION SIZE AND TECHNIQUE
3.5 DATA COLLECTION METHOD
3.6 DATA ANALYSIS
3.7 LIMITATION
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.1: Gender
distribution
4.2: Occupational Distribution
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 SUMMARY
OF FINDING
5.2 CONCLUSION
5.3 RECOMMENDATION
REFERENCES
QUESTIONNAIRE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Nigeria is a middle income, mixed economy and
emerging market, with expanding financial, service, communications, technology
and entertainment sectors. It is ranked as the 21st largest economy in the
world in terms of nominal GDP, and the 20th largest in terms of Purchasing
Power Parity. It is the largest economy in Africa; its re-emergent, though
currently underperforming, manufacturing sector is the third-largest on the
continent, and produces a large proportion of goods and services for the West
African sub-region. Nigeria recently changed its economic analysis to account
for rapidly growing contributors to its GDP, such as telecommunications,
banking, and its film industry (Adeleyo, 2002).
Nigeria's trade relations revolve around the oil
and natural gas sectors. After the economic reforms of 2005, the government is
making efforts to diversify its export profile beyond the oil sector, such as
minerals and agricultural products.Oil and natural gas are the most important
export products for Nigerian trade. The country exports approximately 2.327
million barrels per day, according to the 2007 figures. In terms of total oil
exports, Nigeria ranks 8th in the world. As of 2009, Nigeria has
approximately 36.2 billion barrel oil reserves. Prior to oil production, which
surged after the 1970s, agricultural production was the largest export sector
for Nigeria. After the country became a largely oil-intensive economy, the
agriculture sector took a back seat. However, it still provides employment to
almost 70% of the total working population.
Due to high international oil prices, Nigeria’s
import trade is able to balance export revenue. According to the 2009 figures,
the country's imports grossed over US$42.1 billion. Machinery, heavy
equipments, consumer goods and food products are the major imports. A large
portion of the imports arrive from the EU, particularly the Netherlands, the
UK, France and Germany. China, the US and South Korea are also major import
trade partners.
The abolition/review
of many restrictive businesses and financial regulations and the
Nigeria’smembership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have enhanced
theNigeria’s position in multilateral trade system.The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals
with the rules of tradebetween nations at a global or near-global level. There
are a number of ways of looking at the WTO. It’s an organization for
liberalizingtrade (Weldon, 1999). It’s a forum for governments to negotiate
trade agreements. It’s a placefor them to settle trade disputes. It operates a
system of trade rules (Hart, 1997). Essentially, the WTO is a place where
membergovernments go, to try to sort out the trade problems they face with each
other. Thefirst step is to talk. The WTO was born out of negotiations, and
everything the WTOdoes is the result of negotiations. The bulk of the WTO’s
current work comes from the1986–94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round and
earlier negotiations under theGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
The WTO is currently the host tonew negotiations, under the “Doha Development
Agenda” launched in 2001.Where countries have faced trade barriers and wanted
them lowered, the negotiationshave helped to liberalize trade (santos, 2009). But
the WTO is not just about liberalizingtrade, and in some circumstances its
rules support maintaining trade barriers — for example to protect consumers or
prevent the spread of disease.however, all these calls for need for the
assessment of the World Trade Organization rules and implications on Nigerian
trade.
The
WTO agreements are lengthy and complex because they are legal texts coveringa
wide range of activities. They deal with: agriculture, textiles and clothing,
banking,telecommunications, government purchases, industrial standards and
productsafety, food sanitation regulations, intellectual property, and much
more. But anumber of simple, fundamental principles run throughout all of these
documents.These principles are the foundation of the multilateral tradingsystem(Adeyemi,
1999).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Lowering
trade barriers is one of the most obvious means of encouraging trade. The
barriers concerned include customs duties (or tariffs) and measures such as
import bans or quotas that restrict quantities selectively.
Since,
Nigeria registered the world trade organization treaty in December 1994,
therehas been occasional focus on the economic implication of this treaty for
the Nigerianeconomy. Nigeria registered the WTO treaty in December 1994 and
thus became a fundingmember of the organization in January 1995. The researcher
is seeking to assess how Nigerian external trade fared since she became
asignatory to the W. T. O. in 1995 and how the adherence to the provisions of
theorganization affected non-oil exports and trade liberalization in Nigeria.Although, WTO agreementsallow countries
to introduce changes gradually through progressive liberalization.Developing
countries like Nigeria are usually given longer period to fulfill their
obligations.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study:
1. To
examine the rule of the World Trade Organization.
2. To
examine the Implication of World Trade Organization rules on Nigerian trade.
3. To
examine the effect of trade liberalization on Nigerian trade.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What
are the rules of the World Trade Organization?
2. What
are the Implication of World Trade Organization rules on Nigerian trade?
3. What
is the effect of trade liberalization on Nigerian trade?
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The
outcome of this study will further draw the attention of the government,
managers of the economy as well as the general public to the problems
associated with the full liberalization of trade. It will also assist policy
makers in the choice of policy options as it relates to trade, as issues raised
in this study will serve as guide. It will further enhance the available
literatures on the trade dynamics between developed and developing countries or
between centre states and peripheral states. Finally, it is our hope that the
findings of the study will stimulate further researches in this field which
will further expand the understanding of the position of third world economies
in the global trade system.
1.7 SCOPE/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
This study will cover the rules of the World Trade
Organization and its implication on both internal and external trade.
LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the
efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature
or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire
and interview).
Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously
engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down
on the time devoted for the research work.
REFERENCES
Adeyemi A. Larry (1999): “How Nigeria can push for fair
Trade at into summit”. The GuardianNewspaper- November 22nd, 1999. PP. 5859.
Hart M (1997): WTO and the political Economy of
Globalization Journal of World Trade Law,Economics, Public Policy. Vol. 31. No.
5 October 1997. Pp 79 – 82
OluAdeleyo (2002): “WTO and the Nigeria Economy” Business GuardianWednesday March
7th 2002. P. 24
Santos T. Dos (2009): The crisis of development theory and
that of dependence in Latin American inunderdevelopment (ed) by Harry
Berustanpengium Books Ltd. 1073. P 16.
Weldon Bello (1999): Focus on Trade: The Iron cage: the WTO;
the Bretton woods institution andthe South. No. 41. November 1999. P. 1