WTO Urges Nigeria to Reform Customs Procedures Amid Food Insecurity Concerns

The Trade Policy Review organ of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) expressed concerns over the high rate of physical inspection of containers at Nigerian ports. It urged the country to review its customs procedure to promote timely and cost-effective practices.

Members of the body also stated that longstanding import prohibitions on a wide array of agricultural products, coupled with tariff peaks and additional levies, had the potential to worsen food insecurity, higher food price inflation, and negatively affect private sector investments in the agricultural sector.

Many members of the trade policy review body also expressed concerns over the high number of outstanding notifications by Nigeria, including on anti-dumping, agriculture, subsidies, state trading enterprises, quantitative restrictions, and import licensing.

Those were part of the submissions made by members of the body during the just-ended sixth Trade Policy Review of the WTO, which focused on Nigeria.

The Ambassador of Nigeria to WTO, Adamu Abdulhamid, who doubles as Chairperson of the WTO Trade Policy Review Body for the 2024/2025 period, explained that the review provided Nigeria with a good opportunity to better understand and discuss the country’s trade policy developments since its previous review in 2017.

In his concluding remarks during the policy review session, which ended in Geneva, Switzerland, weekend, Abdulhamid stated that the policy review had in attendance Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment, Ambassador Nura Rimi, who led a delegation from Nigeria, as well as 51 other delegations from across the world who participated in the session, which lasted two days.