(a) List four commodities exported from your country to any one European country. (b) Outline four reasons for the low volume of trade among West African co...

(a) Four commodities exported from my country (Nigeria) to a European country (for example the United Kingdom)

• Crude petroleum (oil)
• Cocoa
• Rubber
• Tin and other solid minerals (also timber, hides and skins)

(b) Four reasons for the low volume of trade among West African countries

• Similar products: the countries produce and export the same primary goods (cocoa, groundnuts, palm produce, minerals), so they need one another's goods little and compete rather than trade.
• Poor transport links between the countries, with few good roads and rail lines connecting them, raising the cost of movement.
• Different currencies and colonial trade ties that bind each country more to Europe than to its neighbours.
• Trade barriers such as high tariffs, customs delays, language differences and border restrictions, plus smuggling and lack of industrial goods to exchange.

(c) Four ways of improving trade among West African countries

• Strengthen ECOWAS and remove tariffs and other trade barriers to form a free-trade area.
• Improve transport and communication - build international roads, railways and telecommunication links between the countries.
• Diversify economies and industrialise so that countries produce a wider range of goods to exchange.
• Adopt a common currency and harmonise trade policies, and set up joint industrial and marketing projects.