Trade Policy and Economic Development of Nigeria: Glitches and Diagnosis

This paper examined trade policy and economic development of Nigeria with references to its challenges and solutions. Developments in both multilateralism and regionalism have raise issues of trade policy strategies. At the country level, it raises issues of which best trade policy strategy to adopt. Consequently, this paper investigated the contemporary issues (factors) affecting Nigeria’s trade policy; access trade policy and economic development in the light of GATT and WTO and identify the challenges and prospects of trade policy towards economic growth and development in Nigeria. The review adopted doctrinal method of research. Findings show that neither pure import substitution industrialization (ISI) Strategy nor its export – oriented counterpart would be sufficient to meet Nigeria’s quest for rapid economic development. The paper therefore recommends that the government should provide necessary incentives to produce export products. Moreso, the Nigeria’s trade policy must be designed within the general context of economic development objectives and goals. An effective trade policy directed at promoting industrial development would necessarily be situated within a strong and well-articulated industrial policy among others.