The press release below was issued by the ECOWAS Communications Office on March 22, 2013.

ECOWAS CET Adopted Press Release.pdf

The National Committees of the Borderless Alliance, the West African private sector-led group advocating for reduced costs and delays in cross-border transport, have begun mobilizing their members to address issues related to trade and transport facilitation at the national level.

Once a month or so, an employee of Mamma Mia’s pizzeria in Accra, Ghana, drives three hours to Lomé in neighboring Togo to stock up on supplies for the popular restaurant. The reason is simple, and one that almost every business owner (and most consumers) understands: lower prices.

Dr. Daniel Bromley is the Anderson-Bascom Distinguished Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at Humbold University in Berlin. He is the author, most recently, of "Vulnerable People, Vulnerable States: Redefining the Development Challenge." The views expressed here are his own.

Global Shea Alliance participates at in-cosmetics, trains women in Ghana

The Global Shea Alliance, co-founded by the USAID Trade Hub in 2011, participated at the In-Cosmetics international trade show and the Union for Ethical Bio Trade conference in Paris, distributing more than 100 annual reports and membership directories to shea butter distributers, brands, and development agencies from around the world.

With fast increasing urbanization, West Africa needs more food than the region currently produces – where will it come from? How will it get here? And at what cost? Peter White, an international development expert, examines the issue for Tradewinds.

Border Information Center opens at the Port of Dakar

105 stakeholders in Senegal participated in the launch of West Africa’s fourth Border Information Center in Dakar. The new center is hosted by the Conseil Sénégalais des Chargeurs (COSEC).

AGOA opened the U.S. to  duty-free sale of more than 6,000 items (tariff lines) from African nations provided those countries conduct free and fair elections. Products from West Africa that have utilized the program include textiles, apparel, agricultural products such as cashews and shea butter as well as oil and gas.

Ghana’s Minister of Trade pledged to significantly reduce the time it takes to process trucks at the country’s border as he opened the second annual conference of the Borderless Alliance in Accra.