Report by the WTO Secretariat

Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau and Togo are members of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Agriculture is of key importance to all three economies. Côte d’Ivoire, in particular, has been able to develop and diversify its agricultural sector through the cultivation of coffee, rubber, fruit, cotton and palm oil, in addition to cocoa, of which it is the world’s leading producer. The main mining sector exports are petroleum products and gold. Its share of manufacturing exports, centred on the agricultural processing industry, declined sharply during the last decade, but Côte d’Ivoire has considerable potential for increasing the value added of such exports. The main destinations of its goods exports are the European Union and Africa, including the ECOWAS countries in particular.