FG, MAN Ponder List of Goods for AfCFTA Tariff Concession Schedule

The federal government has initiated a process with the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) requesting for inputs for the draft list of tariff lines that would eventually be validated as a Draft Schedule for Tariff Concessions for trade in goods under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.

Nigerian Government refusal to endorse the AfCFTA draft agreement in March prompted the federal government to set up a presidential committee to hold consultations with key stakeholders.

The committee held consultative sectoral and industrial consultation in all the six geo-political zones with stakeholders, including 27 groups between March 15 and June 14, 2018, to address concerns on the effect the removal of 90 percent tariffs will have on the country’s economy.

A technical committee working with the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations (NOTN) is expected to submit to its recommendations to the federal government.

But a statement issued by NOTN headed by Chiedu Osakwe yesterday said negotiations office held two dedicated meetings with MAN on March 15 and April 27 respectively, and had requested for further inputs on May 11 by forwarding non-draft offer to the manufacturing association.

NOTN also said it circulated the same non-draft offer to the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) and Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on June 6 and June 26 respectively.

The Technical Working Group on Goods, chaired by NOTN, started the process of reviewing the non-draft offer on goods with the participation of MAN.

This process is envisaged to continue for the next one month to be finalised, following a final review with the Tariff Technical Committee (TTC), with competent jurisdiction for Nigerian tariffs.

The federal government has also said the Rules of Origin on the AfCFTA protocol on trade in goods is a work in progress- over a 24-month period.

It said safeguard measures were also negotiated on ‘Trade Remedies to the Protocol on Trade in Goods’.

These trade remedies encompassed Preferential Safeguard Measures; Anti-Dumping; and, Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.

The annex will come into force with the coming into force of the AfCFTA.