Trade Restriction and Manufacturing Sector Performance in Nigeri

This study examined the impact of trade restriction on manufacturing sector performance in Nigeria from 1970 to 2018. Adopting the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique through bound testing to cointegration, the results revealed thatimport penetration has significant negative impact on the index of manufacturing production both in the short run and long run, export penetration has insignificant negative impact on IMP in the short but significant negative impact on IMP in the long run, while trade restriction has significant positive impact on IMP as against trade liberalization that revealed insignificant negative impact on IMP, this study concludes that trade restriction enhanced and positively impacted on the performance of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria. Consequently, the study recommended among others that, the federal government of Nigeria should be more deliberate and resolute in restricting the importation of consumer goods that can be produced locally into the country.