The Nation Newspaper

Tag: WTO

  • Nigeria okays WTO trade pact

    Nigeria has ratified the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA),this makes her the 107th World Trade Organisation (WTO) member to endorse the agreement, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, has said.

    The minister’s Strategic Communications Adviser, Constance Ikokwu, in a statement in Lagos, said Enelamah submitted Nigeria’s instrument of acceptance to WTO Director-General Mr. Roberto Azevêdo at the just-concluded World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

    According to the statement, only three more ratifications from members are needed to achieve the two-third threshold that will bring the TFA into force. “Nigeria’s ratification of the TFA is a reflection of our commitment to the WTO and a rules-based economy.

    “It is evidence of President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to rapidly implement his presidential initiative on the creation of an enabling environment for business. Nigeria would like to see a strengthened WTO that reflects the development principles of developing countries like Nigeria and we praise the effectiveness of Azevêdo in this regard,” Enelamah said.

    Nigeria was said to have submitted its Category A notification to the WTO on November 10, 2014, outlining substantive provisions of the TFA it intends to implement upon entry into force of the agreement.

    According to the statement, the TFA will enter into force once two-third of the WTO membership has formally accepted the Agreement. The TFA contained provisions for fast-tracking the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit.

    “It also sets out measures for effective cooperation between customs and other relevant authorities on trade facilitation and customs compliance issues. It contains provisions for technical assistance and capacity building in this area,” the statement said.

    It added that a 2015 study conducted by WTO economists showed that full implementation of the TFA would reduce members’ trade costs by an average of 14.3 per cent, among others.

    Other African countries that have ratified the agreement are Botswana, Niger, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Zambia, Lesotho, Mali, Senegal, Swaziland, Gabon, Ghana and Mozambique.

  • WTO backs agricultural reforms

    WTO backs agricultural reforms

    The World Trade Organisation (WTO) reached deals on agricultural export subsidies, food aid and other issues at the week end, capping a ministerial conference in the Kenyan capital where rich and poor countries had been split over the path of trade reform.

    Members said the Nairobi deal had drawn a line under years of stalemate over the direction of global trade negotiations.

    “Our work in Nairobi marks a turning point for the World Trade Organisation,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement.

    The negotiations “started a new phase in the WTO’s evolution” and showed “what is possible when the multilateral trading system comes together to solve a problem.”

    The Geneva-based WTO, which invited Liberia and Afghanistan to become its 163rd and 164th members, has been trying and largely failing to agree on a worldwide package of trade reforms.

    The disagreement had been on since a meeting in Doha in 2001.

    At that meeting, the group had hatched an ambitious plan for knocking down trade barriers.

    The four-day Nairobi conference was extended by a final non-stop 24-hour negotiation between the major trading powers.

    The powers agreed on a package that included phasing out agricultural export subsidies and restricting agricultural export credits.

    But they agreed to disagree about the potential for success in the Doha round of talks.

    Both India and the United States, which wanted to move on from Doha, had had to give ground, an EU official said.

    India had insisted on completing the existing Doha talks before any further negotiation.

    The compromise means that more issues can be loaded onto the negotiating agenda, the EU official said.

     

  • ‘Dangote’s global expansion conforms to ECOWAS, WTO pacts’

    ‘Dangote’s global expansion conforms to ECOWAS, WTO pacts’

    The massive business expansion of the Dangote Group across Africa and around the world is in conformity to the extant agreements among Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member-states and members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

    This was the submission of an expert in international trade and immediate past Director-General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Dr. John Isemede.

    He spoke to reporters in Abuja, last weekend.

    Dr Isemede, who is a consultant with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), expressed satisfaction that the Dangote Group has been complying with relevant laws of doing business in Africa.

    He said the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) was drawn by member- states to eliminate barriers to businesses in the region.

    The NACCIMA chief, who had worked in Ghana, said the country could not meet 30 per cent of its cement need until Dangote established a cement factory there.

    He said: “Not only that, the company has been creating jobs, doing lots of charity works through its Dangote Foundation in Ghana and elsewhere, as well as contributing to the growth of African economy.”

    Noting that there are many Ghanaian products in the Nigerian market, Isemede, who is also a member of the Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce and Industry, added that the two countries have a very cordial political and economic relationship.

    The ETLS of which African countries are signatories is aimed at gradually creating a customs union among member states through the establishment of a free trade zone and the adoption of a common external tariff.

    Isemede urged Nigerians to form business association in any country they find themselves, stating that this will help protect them against undue attacks from citizens of host countries. He said globalisation is reducing boarders to mere bus stops, urging Africans to work together in line with the collective agreement signed by ECOWAS and WTO.

    Also speaking, the Chief Technical Advisor to the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Mr. Charles Malata, said in the past there were no boundaries in Africa, and that the only limitation was the quality of products.

    He said UNIDO is working on the National Quality Infrastructure Project for Nigeria to promote quality businesses and break barriers to businesses on the continent.

    Mr. Malata said quality and standard should be the baseline for moving products in Africa, as it would help in building trust. The UNIDO Technical Advisor added that no West African country should cry foul of domination by products from another West African country. Rather, they should strive to improve their own standards and invest in commodities they have comparative advantage.

    “As a country, one has to take a strategic decision by investing in where it has comparative advantage,” he said, calling on investors from Africa to strive to build trust in their businesses. He also stated that all barriers to regional and international trade must be removed for the continent to join the rest of the world in development and globalisation.

  • Ministry holds workshop on WTO trade agreement

    The Federal Ministry of Trade will next week, in partnership with the USAID’s Nigerian Expanded Trade and Transport (NEXTT) programme, host a national workshop on “Implementing the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.”

    The support is being given to the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) as part of NEXTT’s overall engagement to improve the trade policy process, including policy formulation and coordination in Nigeria.

    The two days’ workshop, which is part of the process to domesticate the Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA) agreed on in December 2013 at the 9th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation, will be attended by public and private trade facilitation stakeholders.

    Upon entry into force, the TFA will create binding obligations for WTO members such as Nigeria to improve customs procedures, transparency and efficiency as well as cooperation amongst border regulatory agencies and private sector.

    The developing and least developed members are expected to self-designate, on individual basis, the provisions of the TFA into Category A (implementation upon entry into force), B (deferred implementation) or C (linked with acquisition of capacity through assistance and support) and the date of their choice for the implementation of respective provisions.

    The workshop, which will hold from the 21st to 23rd October at Chelsea Hotel, Abuja, will, among other things, enhance participant understanding of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and its implication; collect private sector inputs on the key barriers to trade Determine Nigeria target prioritisation of the TFA commitments

    It will also enhance participants’ awareness on the key success factors for the set up and strengthening of a National Trade Facilitation Committee and initiate the process of building project plans to request donor’s financial and technical assistance for Category C provision implementation

    Participants will include trade facilitation stakeholders from the public and private sector; development partners and the academia.

  • ‘What Nigeria stands to gain from WTO’

    ‘What Nigeria stands to gain from WTO’

    Nigeria’s new Ambassador to World Trade Organisation (WTO), David Adejuwon, explaines the strategic trade brief handed to him by the Federal Government, the politics in WTO and how developing countries can negotiate better deals in the global trade body. He spoke with Assistant Editor, Bola Olajuwon. Excerpts: 

    With your appointment, what do you think are the expectations of the federal government in view of the current investment drive?

    The expectations of government include taking advantage of Nigeria’s membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to impact positively on our national economies through increase in the volume of trade, Foreign Direct Investment inflow, increased technical assistance and support from the multinational trading system and donor countries in the areas of capacity-building, infrastructure development, enhanced foreign exchange earnings, and market access for the countries’ exportable commodities through removal of technical and non-technical barriers to trade.

    This is by highlighting the various government policies and programmes that are geared towards stimulation of sustainable, all inclusive economic growth; sharing of information and experiences on trade and investment opportunities in Nigeria; harvesting the available technical assistance and support from the multilateral trading system and other international trade and investment-related organisations in Geneva; promoting bilateral trade relationship with some of the Nigerian trading and potential trading partners on a win-win situation; providing critical information on the trade and investment policies, including the regulatory frameworks to fellow ambassadors of the WTO with a view to attracting Foreign Direct Investment into the critical sectors of the economy, including mining, power, energy, transport, agriculture, communication, aviation, banking, manufacturing.

    The expectation is also to ensure that our national, sub-regional and continental interests are well-advanced and protected in the ongoing Doha Development Agenda (DDA) Negotiations. It is to ensure the integration of the Nigerian economy into the multilateral trading system so as to enable Nigeria have its good share of the global market in terms of export of value-added product.

    How do you want to go about achieving these expectations?

    I intend to achieve these expectations through a focused and regular dialogue/engagement with some of the strategic trading partners of Nigeria who are members of the WTO both at bilateral, pluri-lateral and multilateral levels. I also intend to establish a very strong working relationship as well as  collaborate effectively with some of the multilateral organisations in Geneva such as UNCTAD, WIPO, ITC and by so doing, explore and harvest all available technical assistance and support that can be given to Nigeria to achieve the objective of sustainable and all inclusive economic growth with emphasis on export product development, export competitiveness, capacity-building in the area of negotiation skills, implementation of some of the protocols to which Nigeria is a signatory, including legislation and domestication requirements; organising national and regional workshops, seminars/training programmes in Nigeria with the support of the international organisations; workshops for the parliamentarians, executives, judiciary, civil society organisations (CSOs), the organised private sector (OPS), media on the activities and benefits of being a member of the multilateral trading system and the expected roles of the target participants in actualising the objective of stimulating sustainable growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through provision of an enabling environment.

    I also plan to engage the international organisations in discussions and secure support to some of the country’s flagship projects, including the SMEs Development Plan; Train-to-Work Skills Development initiative in close liaison with Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to assist the SMEs; capacity-building programmes for the African Women Development Programme (AWEP), Nigeria chapter, to enable them take advantage of the opportunities provided by AGOA in terms of product development, packaging, labelling and export competitiveness; establishment of the Transnational Border Markets and border development in some of the geo-political zones as part of the efforts to promote intra-regional trade with Okerete Transnational Border Market as a Pilot; enlist support on how to facilitate the movement of goods and people through removal of border crossing barriers at the airports and border posts.

    I also intend working in concert with the Task-force on Trade Facilitation of which I happened to be the chairman before my appointment as an Ambassador to the WTO and thereby reduce the cost of doing business, establishment of joint border posts; establishment of modern and accredited quality laboratories in Nigeria as a precursor to the realisation of economic diversification objective of the federal government from crude oil export to export of value-added oil and non-oil export products. I look forward to securing commitments to assist and support plans to set up more quality infrastructure in Nigeria to facilitate international trade and competitiveness of Nigerian goods in the international markets.

    To achieve these will definitely require formulation of trade and investment friendly policies that will enable the local and foreign investors see Nigeria as an investors’ haven. The launching of the National Industrial Revolution Plan by Mr. President in February is a very welcome development. This policy document, which is a five-year plan that aims at rapidly building up industrial capacity as well as improving competitiveness in Nigeria, will be distributed to some of the targeted countries that will support Nigeria in realising the dream. The policy document will drive both domestic and foreign direct investment into Nigeria on a sustainable basis, especially in the areas of agro-processing and agro-allied business; metals and solid minerals processing, oil and gas-related industries, construction, light manufacturing (automobile) and services.

    It is generally believed that the developing countries and their emerging markets are not being treated fairly by main actors in WTO. What is your stance on the issue?

    We must first of all understand that the WTO is a rule-based organisation and member states driven. All agreements are negotiated based on bottom-up all inclusiveness principle. We should also expect that in all trade negotiations, you do not get all you want as negotiation is “give’ and ‘take’. What you get depends on your offensive, rather than defensive negotiation skill. It is within this context that the developed countries and some developing countries have fared well in the WTO. In Africa, some countries and blocs are doing well in the negotiations. Every member country is expected to first of all define its national/regional interest and priorities on the basis of which its position on the various issues being negotiated would be defended. Due to serious gaps in the negotiation skills of LDCs and developing countries, majority of the countries go to the negotiation table not well-prepared, thereby resulting into defensive rather than offensive negotiation. It is important that we properly define our national and regional positions before going to the negotiation table. It is also important to negotiate as a regional bloc like EU, negotiating on behalf of its 28 members instead of the African member countries negotiating as individual countries and not as an African Trade Bloc in the WTO on-going Doha Development Round. In unity lies our strength.

    It is also being suggested that developing countries should close ranks and create a better platform to tackle unfair practices in the organisation that are not in their best interests. Do you think this is necessary? How can it be done?

    Yes, I quite agree with you on the need to promote South-South Cooperation as a way of defending or negotiating issues based on commonalities. As I mentioned earlier, in unity lays the strength of the LDC, developing countries as well as countries with small vulnerable economy. The need to close ranks and form a formidable front in the course of negotiations cannot be over-emphasised.

    This is what informed the establishment of the various groupings in the WTO comprising WTO members with common interests and aspirations. Unlike in the previous Uruguay Round where many developing and LDCs did not participate actively in the negotiations, the story has changed in the current DDA negotiations with many of the developing, LDCs, small and vulnerable economies organising themselves into groups based on their shared interests and thereby speaking in one voice in advancing their established economic position.

    These groups include African Group; African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP that have strong economic interest with the EU); G90 (Group of Developing and Less Developed Countries with common interests on the negotiation issues); SVEs (Group of 15 Small Islands that are members of the WTO with common interest in Agriculture, Fisheries and Non-Agriculture Market Access – NAMA);G20 (Group of Developing and LDCs with commonality in agriculture negotiation); G33 (Another Group of 33 countries with interest in agriculture negotiation); C4 (Group of Four West African Cotton Producers with common interest in Cotton).

    I intend to leverage on the existing platform and others to further promote our national economic interest in line with the transformation agenda and the policies of the federal government.

    ECOWAS and EU have finally agreed on the grey areas of EPA. But analysts argued that the contents of the deal which will be ink soon are not in the best interest of West Africa. What is your position?

    The Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment had already made it clear at the last ECOWAS Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting that was held in Dakar on February 17, 2014, immediately after the chief negotiators meeting that there is a need for economic impact analysis of the ECOWAS-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) on the national economy and sensitisation of the Organised Private Sector (OPS), CSOs etc. on the outcome. The analysis, according to the HMITI, is important because the negotiation process was stalled and the Authority of Heads of States gave a mandate for the chief negotiators to exercise flexibilities from both sides to conclude the negotiations. We therefore have to analyse the extent of the use of the flexibilities mandate and its implication on our national   and regional economies before the region can ink the agreement. Towards this end, The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment has assembled a team of experts from the academia, MDAs and OPS to conduct the study and plans to organise a stakeholder dialogue to enable Nigeria take an informed national position on the agreement.

  • Nigeria may lose billions of naira to WTO sanction

    Nigeria may lose billions of naira to WTO sanction

    •Global body angry about trade restrictions

    Nigeria may lose billions of naira in fines to be imposed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over the nation’s trade restrictions.

    The global trade regulatory body is angry with the country for stopping fish importation.

    The WTO threatened to penalise Nigeria, if the country fails to remove the trade restrictions imposed by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.

    In a unilateral measure in which it allegedly alienated the Ministry of Trade and Investment, the Fisheries Department under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has approved a ban on the importation of fish into Nigeria.

    In a letter conveying the ban on fish importation dated November 28, 2013 by the Acting Director of Fisheries, Foluke Areola, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced to the Embassy of the Argentina Republic that fish import into Nigeria had been stopped.

    In the letter, Areola wrote: “The pronouncements were to avail the country of the needed time and opportunity for a total clean-up and review of existing procedures and lapses with a view of establishing a better system that will considerably reduce and control the existing sharp practices in the system.”

    The ban, which reportedly outraged the Ministry of Trade and Investment, was said to have forced some of the exporting countries of frozen fish to petition the WTO.

    The global organisation was said to have queried the Federal Government over the alleged breach of an existing charter.

    It was learnt that the import restriction irritated a number of countries.

    To avert a diplomatic row, some of the affected nations, including China, Argentina, Netherlands and Chile, whose imported fish comes to Nigeria, have been seeking clarifications on the goings-on in the country’s Fisheries sector.

    It was also learnt that the re-introduction of import licensing by the Federal Department of Fisheries was in violation of the WTO regime.

    A source close to the ministry, who spoke in confidence, said: “The era of import licences in Nigeria and across the world has passed. The minister and the Acting Director, Mrs Foluke Areola, just wanted to allocate quotas on their own. In this era of trade liberalisation, only import duties, levies and Value Added Tax (VAT) are in existence.

    “The minster and the acting director should realise that without a law legalising the issuance of clearance certificate, which is import licence by another name, any operator can legally bring in fish into the country, as long as they have the ability to pay for it.”

    Sources said the WTO has issued a query to the Minister of Agriculture “through legitimate and diplomatic channels”.

    But Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, had reportedly refused to respond to the query.

    The minister’s indifference, it was learnt, might force the WTO to sanction Nigeria, which may be fines amounting to billions of Naira.

     

     

     

  • World Bank, WTO joint database coming

    The World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have agreed to jointly develop and maintain a database on trade in services for Nigeria and more than 100 other countries globally.

    A statement from the global lender said the joint database covers various sectors such as financial, transportation, tourism, retail, telecommunications, and business services, including law and accounting.

    It said the database is an area that is becoming increasingly important and yet for which little information is publicly available.

    It said the data will be presented in four modules covering: members’ commitments under the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS); commitments on trade in services in regional trade agreements; members’ applied measures affecting trade in services; and services statistics.

    The first version of the database has just been launched, as part of the WTO’s Integrated Trade Intelligence Portal (I-TIP) Services portal.

    Policy makers, researchers, trade negotiators, and the general public can access the database for free. Policy transparency is a public good and a shared objective of both institutions. The World Bank makes trade data publicly available under the Open Data Initiative, as does the WTO with the I-TIP.

    Transparency is particularly important in the dynamic area of trade in services because the regulatory framework is complex and little information is publicly available. Cross-border trade in services makes up one-fifth of all world trade, even without considering international transactions through foreign affiliates and the temporary movement of people. This WTO-World Bank arrangement exploits synergies between both institutions.

    “Among other things, the joint database combines WTO data, including those on legal commitments trade policy reviews (TPRs) or trade monitoring reports with World Bank data on applied policies from the Services Trade Restrictions Database, which went public last year. Both institutions will work hard to make sure the joint database stays up to date and expands to cover more sectors and countries,” it said.

     

  • ECOWAS ministers agree to partner WTO

    ECOWAS ministers agree to partner WTO

    African Trade Ministers yesterday agreed to support the package put on the table at the ongoing World Trade Organisation’s Ninth Ministerial Conference (MC9), taking place in Bali, Indonesia, in the interest of the developing economies and the global economy at large.

    The ministers agreed, during a meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and a working dinner co-organised by Nigeria, that there should be convergence in Bali after the Doha talks which have been on for about 12 years.

    The Minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, who spoke to reporters after the dinner, said: “Bearing in mind that no one gets everything he wants in a package and that people have to compromise, Nigeria and other African countries have agreed to support the package as presented in Bali and work towards a deal in the next few days.”

    There are three main items in the package – trade facilitation (to streamline customs procedures and minimise unnecessary border delays, delivering jobs and opportunities in times of unemployment and slow growth); agriculture (which Nigeria and other African countries are really interested in); and development, which applies mainly to Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

    Aganga said: “At the last ministerial meeting in Geneva (MC8) which I chaired, one of the conclusions was that the WTO should identify some of the elements of Doha where there was very little disagreement and which would be beneficial to members with a view to delivering a package around those areas. Those areas were areas to do with trade facilitation, which is beneficial to everyone.”

  • WTO chief hopeful of global trade reform deal within days

    WTO chief hopeful of global trade reform deal within days

    World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo speaks during an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi October 7, 2013.

    The World Trade Organization may agree its first worldwide trade reform package before the end of the weekend, its director-general, Roberto Azevedo, said on Friday.

    Asked if a deal could be reached by Sunday night, Azevedo told Reuters: “I hope so.”

    He spoke as he was entering what could turn out to be one of the last negotiating sessions in the global trade body’s 12 year pursuit of a trade deal, capping 10 weeks of round the clock talks that Azevedo has overseen since he took the helm of the WTO on September 1.

    The deal would streamline customs procedures worldwide, making border-crossing processes more predictable and transparent. Studies by the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development have said it would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the world economy.

    It also includes some changes to the rules on agriculture and some special treatment for the poorest countries.

    Azevedo forced the marathon negotiations to try to get the deal before a meeting of WTO ministers in Bali in the first week of December.

    Diplomats say that if the 159 WTO members can agree on the text at a meeting of the WTO’s General Council in Geneva, ministers would rubber-stamp it in Bali, with little chance of negotiations being reopened.

    A deal in Bali would revive confidence at the WTO after its credibility ebbed away over the past decade with the slow death of the Doha round of talks, which gave way to the more modest package of reforms now under discussion.

    A meeting of the General Council was due on Thursday, but it was postponed while negotiations on the trade reform package continued. Azevedo said he was not yet sure if he would be able to call a meeting of the council this weekend.