Nigeria’s Duty Free Export To US Shrinks To $351.73m
Nigeria’s export to the United States under a duty free policy declined in the first nine months of 2020, recording $351.73m from January to September. According to the latest African Growth and Opportunity Act(AGOA) policy trade statistics, exports to the US under the policy fell by 86.97 percent from $2,699.13m in the first nine months of 2019 to $352.73m in the corresponding period in 2020.
The AGOA, a United States’ trade policy, enacted in 2000, is a legislation that facilitates a duty free trade between exporters from sub Saharan Africa and the United States. Annual trade data showed the largest contribution towards AGOA eligible trade commodities was usually oil exports mainly from Angola and Nigeria, and to a lesser extent, Chad and the Republic of Congo. Oil export under the policy accounted for 99.7 percent of Nigeria’s AGOA exports to the United States in 2019. However, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Ghana and Madagascar are among the leading non oil AGOA exporters. Kenya, Ethiopia and Madagascar dominated the apparel sector. The Nigerian America Chamber of Commerce(NACC) under the leadership of Otunba Toyin Akomolafe recently said it was planning to establish parks in states for businesses to benefit from the duty free AGOA of the US government. He said, Osun and Imo states governments had shown interest in the parks. He described AGOA as an initiative of the United States of America Government to open up a preferential window of export opportunities to selected countries in Africa, including Nigeria. Akomolafe said, “This window of opportunity helps in assisting our members with information and training on export procedures and standards in exporting non oil and agro allied products to the United States.
