GLOBALISATION AND THE CHALLENGES OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION IN WEST AFRICA, 1990 – 2006

Globlisation is a multi-dimensional phenomenon with risks and opportunities for States of the world that have been inextricably linked in a complex and interdependent relationship. In order to mitigate the risks and maximize the opportunities, States have resorted to regional integration, hence regional integration is ubiquitous. This study is a modest contribution to knowledge, it interrogated and transcended the orthodox perspective that globalization benefits all States. To this end, we interrogated the following questions: Is there any link between trade liberalization and diminishing level of intra-regional trade in West Africa? Has liberalization of global finance impacted negatively on the strategies and mechanisms of monetary cooperation and integration in West Africa? Does liberalization of investment practices enhance the inflow of FDI into the West African sub-region? To answer our questions, we hypothesized as follows: There is a strong link between trade liberalization and the diminishing level of intra-regional trade in West Africa; Liberalisation of global finance tends to impact negatively on the strategies and mechanisms of monetary cooperation in West Africa; Liberalisation of investment practices tends to undermine the inflow of FDI into the West African sub-region. The study is divided into five chapters, chapter one dealt with the introduction and other conventional research procedures; chapter two investigated the link between trade liberalization and diminishing intra-regional trade in West Africa; in the third chapter, we assessed the impact of liberalization of global finance on the strategies and mechanisms of monetary cooperation in West Africa; the fourth chapter examined how liberalization of investment practices undermines the inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the West African sub-region while the fifth chapter dwelt on the conclusion and recommendations. We predicated our analysis on the theory of complex interdependence and found as follows: a priori, trade liberalization as anchored on the neoliberal framework provided by WTO only engenders vertical integration of West African countries into the global economy and leads to diminishing intra-regional trade in West Africa; that liberalization of global finance as an aspect of globalization undermines the autonomy of West African States in financial/monetary policy making and thus vitiates the efficacy of the mechanisms and strategies of monetary cooperation in West Africa; we observed that liberalization of investment practices has led to the metamorphosis of investment climate such that the contemporary investment climate leads to the marginalization of the sub-region in the flow of FDI, this impacts negatively on economic activities in West Africa and also undermines integration in the sub-region. The theoretical and empirical evidence presented not only validated our hypotheses but underscores the fact that globalization undermines sub-regional integration in West Africa. We recommended that although integration is not an elixir, West African countries should pursue it with vigour in order to be relevant in the contemporary global economy.