Outlook on AGRICULTURE Vol 36, No 2, 2007, pp 93–99 93 Livestock, liberalization and trade negotiations in West Africa Papa Nouhine Dieye, Guillaume Duteurtre, Jean-René Cuzon and Djiby Dia Abstract: West Africa is shifting towards an increasing liberalization of agricultural markets. This trend will continue in line with current trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. The objective of this paper is to assess the impact of these negotiations on the livestock sector in the region. Livestock systems, in spite of their technical weakness, are strongly integrated with markets. Liberalization has had an important impact on national livestock sectors, especially dairying and poultry production. Imports of poultry meat increased, for example, from 500 to 17,000 tonnes between 1996 and 2002 in Senegal. Similar changes have been seen in Ghana and Ivory Coast. The dairy sector has had to compete with milk powder imports for years, but this competition seems to be limited by market segmentation, which explains the recent good prospects for local milk production. In addition, powdered milk production has had a significant role in the establishment of a local dairy industry. African countries should invest further in trade negotiations if they are to increase national capacities, eg via improvements in the negotiating power of administration services and the encouragement of national and regional research networks for market analysis. Keywords: world trade; livestock agriculture; markets; West Africa Papa Nouhine Dieye is an agri-economist and Chef du Bureau d’Analyses Macroéconomiques, Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA), Route des Hydrocarbures, Bel Air, BP 3120 Dakar, Sénégal. E-mail: pndieye@yahoo.fr. Guillaume Duteurtre is an agri-economist with Centre de Cooperation International en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), based at Bureau d’Analyses Macro-économiques, ISRA. E-mail: duteurtre@cirad.fr. Jean-René Cuzon is a Technical Assistant, Département du Développement Rural et Environnement, Commission UEMOA, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. E-mail: jrcuzon@uemoa.int. Djiby Dia is Doctorant en Géographie at l’Université Cheikh Anta Diop, based at the Bureau d’Analyses Macro-économiques, ISRA. E-mail: djibsdia@yahoo.fr. West Africa today enjoys a market of 220 million consumers. Demographic projections show that this population will reach 350 million by 2020 (FAO, 2004), an increase that will be coupled with greater urbanization. The coastal zones will constitute the main concentrated demographic zones, with an urban population of nearly 60% in countries such as Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Senegal. A major concern will be the satisfaction of the population’s needs and the supplies to these urban areas. As regards the marketing of animal products, the literature suggests that these demographic changes will lead to rapid and extensive modification of the livestock systems and marketing chains (Delgado et al, 1999). Because of the high revenue elasticity of animal products, the challenges of the livestock sector are very important for West Africa. The gap between demand and supply is particularly important in the cases of milk and poultry meat. The levels of self-sufficiency for milk are from 60 to 70% for Sahelian countries and from 8 to 50% for the coastal countries (Balami, 2004). Imports therefore contribute strongly to supplies for the domestic West African markets. This paper analyses current dynamics and issues in the development of the livestock sector in West Africa in the