Regional and Global Trade Strategies for Liberia

Liberia intends to deepen its participation in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) by adopting the common external tariff (CET) of the Customs Union (CU). This implies that Liberia will have to modify its tariff structure to be much closer to the (yet unknown because of upcoming demands for exceptions to the schedule and demands for reclassification of goods) CET of the CU. This implies that Liberia will have to modify its tariff structure to be much closer to the (yet unknown because of upcoming demands for exceptions to the schedule and demands for reclassification of goods) CET of the CU. This report is in response to the Government of Liberia’s request to the International Growth Centre to estimate the likely effects of this change, particularly on households’ well-being and on government revenue. This paper was prepared by the IGC at the request of the Government of Liberia. A full version with annexes is available at: http://www.theigc.org/sites/default/file/Regional%20and%20Global%20Trade%20Strategies%20for%20Liberia.pdf. The authors thank Mounir Siaplay, IGC Liberia in-country Economist, and John Spray, ODI Fellow at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) of Liberia for support. We also thank Ibrahim Stevens, Eric Werker, participants at the WTO Technical Workgroup meeting on October 10th 2013, as well Hon. Minister Axel Addy, MOCI, Deputy Minister Steve Marvie, MOCI, and Deputy Minister Candance Eastman, MOCI for their valuable comments and insights.