Exports ban only affects beans – EU

The European Commission (EU) has said only dried beans is affected by the recent ban for export to the member countries from Nigeria.

In a reaction to Daily Trust’s inquiry on the development, Head of Trade and Economic Section, EU Delegation in Nigeria, Mr. Filippo Amato, reiterated that a temporary suspension of import of dried beans from Nigeria has been adopted by the European Commission last June.

He said the information circulated in a number of national newspaper that the temporary ban would affect the import of several other agricultural products is wrong.

“The measure only concerns dried beans, because this is the product that was most frequently rejected for health reasons (too high presence of pesticides) at the EU border over the last couple of years,” he clarified.

He explained that though other products imported from Nigeria are occasionally rejected for other reasons at the EU border, but these occasional rejections did not justify so far the adoption of any temporary suspension of other imports.

He said the EU understood that various Nigerian agencies such as Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services, are already taking measures towards solving the issue.

He said through the Nigerian quality infrastructure support program, implemented by UNIDO, the EU is also indirectly supporting the Nigerian authorities towards the same objective.

Setback for Nigerian economy. With an economy that covers 25 percent of world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the EU offers developing countries, including Nigeria the lowest import tariffs in the world.

“Developing countries have excellent market access to the EU with low or zero tariffs and other market distortions are significantly reduced,” a guide on EU’S import posted on its website stated.