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Reviewing Agricultural Trade Policies

To Promote Intra-OIC Agricultural Trade

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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