An Examination of Recent Trends, Composition and Trade Intensity of Nigeria-Brazil Bilateral Relations

Abstract

This paper examines the trends, composition and trade intensity of Nigeria-Brazil bilateral trade relations for the period 2000-2017. Tables, graphs, and trade intensity index were employed. The results indicate that Nigeria's trade with Brazil has significantly recorded impressive growth. However, the share of major products exported to Brazil over the period remained insignificant with the exception of mineral fuels. The results further show that the share of major products imported from Brazil is significant, indicating that Brazilian exports to Nigeria are more diversified than that of Nigeria's export to Brazil. The trade intensity index indicates high trade intensities between the countries and the high possibility of increasing bilateral trade flow. Based on these findings, the study recommends the need for Nigeria’s export to be restructured in order to reduce the prevailing role of mineral fuels to Nigeria's exports through diversification and identification of new export opportunities in Brazilian markets.

Nigeria-China Bilateral Trade Relations: Is There Market Opportunities in China?

“…Therefore, Nigeria has no comparative advantage in all of the newly identified markets/commodities. These findings provide support for studies (Ibrahim & Iorember, 2018;Ibrahim & Sari, 2019a) that revealed a limited scope for Nigeria to increase its export to China based on only comparative advantage.…”

“…Therefore, Nigeria has no comparative advantage in all of the newly identified markets/commodities. These findings provide support for studies (Ibrahim & Iorember, 2018;Ibrahim & Sari, 2019a) that revealed a limited scope for Nigeria to increase its export to China based on only comparative advantage. Based on the current market condition in China, for most of the commodities which Nigeria can actually and potentially export to China, we found that there are no market opportunities in these commodities.…”

“…Other similar studies include (Ibrahim & Iorember 2018;Ibrahim & Sari 2019a), that examined the trends, composition, trade intensity and identified sectors and commodities with a comparative advantage in Nigeria-China trade relations. These studies revealed a limited scope for Nigeria to increase its exports to China based on its comparative advantage and reduce its deficit BOT.…”

“…These studies revealed a limited scope for Nigeria to increase its exports to China based on its comparative advantage and reduce its deficit BOT. Another strand of studies includes (Ibrahim, 2015;Ibrahim & Abdulaziz, 2016;Ibrahim & Sari, 2019a;Ibrahim & Sari, 2019b;Ibrahim & Sayuti, 2017a), that examined the comparative advantage and measure the extent to which Nigeria's export supply match with China, Brazil, and India import demand. Results from these studies showed that Nigeria can only competitively export mineral fuels while China, Brazil and India can export competitively numerous products to Nigeria and there is a partial match between Nigeria's export supply and their import demand.…”