Reviewing Agricultural Trade Policies
To Promote Intra-OIC Agricultural Trade
121
Agricultural Trade Policies
Agriculture is a major source of livelihood for The Gambia. Trade policies follow the overall goal
of the Agricultural and Natural Policy (2017-2016) whose aim is to create a more favorable
environment for producers through productivity increase. The ultimate goal is to achieve a
market led commercialized, efficient, competitive, dynamic agricultural sector in the context of
sustainable development. Among the proposed strategies, the policy paper emphasizes greater
role of the private sector, reformed marketing strategies through accelerated agro-based
industries. ANR Policy document is considered to be significant paper that helps to provide
logical basis of planning. The document includes issues related to agricultural trade.
Liberalized trade policies through tariff reductions since 1980s has been a common practice in
The Gambia for manufactured goods as well as agricultural products. The Gambia is a founding
member of ECOWAS. Following ECOWAS, The Gambia started to apply common external tariffs
such as 35% (particularly high for major products for food security), 20%, 10%, 5%, 0%.
ECOWAS is working towards formation of a common market and the ultimate aim is customs
union and a common monetary policy.
Import tariffs are the main source of protection of agricultural sector in The Gambia. Another
important measure for protection is quotas for specific products, such as Irish potatoes
imported from Europe. To protect the domestic production of major export products, such as
groundnuts, the government applies import tariffs. For imported staple foods, such as rice
(imported largely fromVietnam and Thailand, USA and Pakistan), there have been reductions in
the tariff rates. The interviews revealed that the effect of reduction of tariffs on domestic prices
of rice was not significant, causing the Government to lose a major revenue source, without
achieving the objective of enabling the people to consume rice at a low cost. Besides rice, The
Gambia basically imports practically everything, such as wheat, oil, vegetables. The respondents
stated that The Gambia need to encourage rice tariffs in order to become self-sufficient and
become a net exporter. Self-sufficiency is a main concern, particularly for staples. The Gambian
Agriculture Transformation Program with the African Development Bank puts emphasis on the
issue of food self-sufficiency. Export promotion schemes are required for major export crops,
such as cashews, sesame and peanuts. The country has very little export products. Most export
is done through re-exporting. For example, textile is imported fromVietnam, China and then The
Gambia re-exports textiles to other African countries. Cashews are re-exported through
exported cashews from neighboring countries.
Trade policy is a cross cutting topic across the Ministries in The Gambia. The coordination is
achieved through a National Trade Policy Committee whose role is to advise the Prime Minister
on Trade policy issues. Committee has members from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry
of Finance and Economic Affairs, Customs, Food Safety and Quality Authority as well as members
from the NGOs.
Food security, supply chains, smallholder farmers
There are two major bottlenecks with respect to food security in The Gambia. The first is related
to low productivity and / or lack of production of major staple foods. Rice, a major staple food,
is being imported instead of developing opportunities for rice production Although the
government initiated a tide irrigation policy for rice production, the irrigated farmland (for rice
as well as other products) is not sufficient. In order to ensure availability and affordability of
rice, import tariff rates were reduced. However, the stakeholder interviews revealed that the
impact of tariff reduction was not reflected as low prices for the consumers. The second
bottleneck with regards to food security is related to farmers’ inability to have access to