ABSTRACT

In this research paper we examined the relationship between Trade Liberalization and socio-economic development in Nigeria over the last couple of Years. Trade Liberalization was generally agreed to be a theory of International trade which favour the opening up of State borders for free movement of goods and services from other countries without any restriction or barriers. It argues that when states open up their borders for a trade with other states without any restriction or barriers, it leads to overall development of the states involved in the trade relationship. However this position has attracted criticism from other scholars especially of the third world background, who argued that trade liberalization, only leads to the development of the stronger partners in the trading relationship at the expense of the weaker ones. This work further looked at the relationship between trade liberalization and the underdevelopment of the third world, with particular reference to Nigeria. The work however was carried out using the world systems theory by Immanuel Wallenstein, which   believes that there is a world economic system in which some countries benefit while others are exploited. In other words the countries of the world are categorized into Core, Periphery and Semi-Peripheral countries. Our findings show that trade liberalization has made the Nigerian economy to be highly dependent on imported goods from the developed countries, and this has however led to stunted growth of the Nigerian economy, thereby causing underdevelopment in the country. Subsequently, the paper suggests a form of guided trade liberalization or what Claude Ake refers to as Liberalization from below, as the way forward for Nigeria and other third world countries.

Keywords: Trade Liberalization, International trade, Underdevelopment, Third World