Beke, Tite Ehuitché <br/><br/>
Effects of trade costs on regional agricultural trade in ECOWAS 

 -  2022.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> The study assesses the effect of trade costs on agricultural trade in the ECOWAS region. The direct costs of transport and logistics and the indirect costs related to infrastructure, customs procedures and corruption are explored. Special attention is given to the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Indices which provide a comparative assessment of the efficiency and costs of customs procedures, logistics services and trade infrastructure. This assessment of trade costs on bilateral agricultural trade flows is made using a gravity model. The results show that transport and logistics costs, inefficient customs procedures, corruption in corridors and poor infrastructure severely hamper intra-regional agricultural trade. These trade costs are more penalizing as the trade involves products of a perishable nature.