NAMES :KIBE MAUREEN I.D NO: 632107
COURSE:IBA 4010
LECTURER:LUKA EPAINITO OBBANDA
TASK : ASSIGNMENT 1
TITLE: TRADE BLOCS
SEMESTER: FALL 2013

INTRODUCTION
ECOWAS is an acronym to mean Economic Community of West African States whereas a trading bloc is a set of countries which engage in international trade together, and are usually related through a free trade agreement or other association.ECOWAS was established in May, 1975 as a regional institutional framework for the coordination and promotion of economic cooperation and sustainable development in West Africa. The challenges of economic develpoment in an underdeveloped and highly unstable environment such as west africa appear enormous and so leave one to ponder on the possibilty of success or otherwise in realizing such an idea.
ESTABLISHMENT OF ECOWAS
ECOWAS was established in 1975 to coordinate and promote trade,cooperation and sustainable development throughout West Africa.The signing of the ECOWAS treaty of Lagos was indeed a kind of radical response to the plague of poverty and underdevelopment bedeviling West Africa, and as a result, practically provided the much desired framework for the realization of rapid and sustainable socio-political and economic development throughout the sub-region, and has till date the following member states: Republic of Benin,Burkina Faso,Cape Verde,Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia,Ghana,Guinea,Guinea Bissau,Liberia,Mali,Niger,Nigeria,Senegal,Sierra Leone and the Republic of Togo.
First, ECOWAS set out to form a free trade area by undertaking a progressive removal of all custom duties and other charges of similar effect, on imports and exports between member states, as well as all quota and quantitative restrictions and other administrative impediments on trade between the member states within the sub-region, as epitomized by Article 41 of its Revised Treaty.