The relationship between trade and economic growth is debatable subject among development economists. The aim of this study is to reveal the causal relationship between export, import and economic growth (GDP) of Ethiopia by considering annual data from 1981-2015. A multi-variate model is specified and estimated by using vector error correction model to measure short run and long run relationship. Granger causality test is applied to test granger causality. The study revealed that, in the short run export and import has significant impact on GDP while in the long run only import significantly affects GDP. On the other hand at 5 percent significant level, the study found that, there is bi directional granger causality between export and GDP as well as Import and GDP