Nigeria to review its trade policy

Nigeria to review its trade policy
Hauwa Noroh Ali, Abuja

 
The Nigerian government says it is working arduously to produce a revised trade policy by 2012 that will capture all the current reforms geared at promoting trade in the country.

Trade policy review

The Director of Trade in the Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mr David Adejuwon said that Nigeria, right now, does not have a stand-alone policy on trade and as such the government had involved all relevant stakeholders to ensure that Nigeria’s Trade  policy met best practices and international standard.

He stated that Nigeria’s trade policy was last revised in 2005 and as a developing country and member of the WTO, Nigeria was expected to subject its trade policy to review every 6 years.

He noted that at the ongoing WTO Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, that Nigeria’s Trade policy would be reviewed.

“Immediately after this exercise at the level of the ministry, we are planning to review the document and then, it will be reviewed at national level because, every good policy should be subjected to periodic review so by 2012 we look at a possibility of rolling out a  revised edition of Nigeria’s Trade policy that will encapsulates everything to make trade facilitation easier in the country,” he said.

He noted that the review meeting in Geneva would be held under the auspices of the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB) of the World Trade Organisation, stating that the Trade Policy Review (TPR) was one of the key functions of the World Trade Organization under the WTO Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM).

Infrastructure challenges

Mr David Adejuwon, who is also the Chairman of the taskforce on trade facilitation, noted that trading in Nigeria had various challenges which the task force was trying to rectify.

He noted that lack of infrastructure was one of the hindrances to trade.

“The critical infrastructure that is needed to drive trade the railway, good road network even the aviation sector still need to be worked upon to boast trade,” he said.

He stated that it is easier to travel to Europe than travelling within West African countries.

He described economic integration as an essential factor aimed at promoting trade among the ECOWAS member countries.

However, Adejuwon said the infrastructure required to drive the process is still grossly inadequate and called for more participation from the private sector to develop infrastructure.

He noted: “I believe Government alone cannot do it there is need for private investors to come and collaborated with the government to enhance provision of some of this infrastructure, there is the option of Public Private Partnership PPP or BOT arrangement.”

“We still have a lot of issues that need to be addressed urgently for us to be compliant with best practices accordingly we have drawn a matrix of action plan which we are presenting to the government for endorsement ,and also approval for directive so that all the relevant agencies involved see their flaws and step up to international best practice we hope that very soon to have a sort of one stop Centre where just a single document will be completed by importers or exporters without having to move from one agency to another seeking for authorization,” he stressed.

He stated that a lot of consultation with stakeholders and developmental partners had taken place to solicit their support to ensure that Nigeria’s business environment was made conducive for trading.

Taxation review

The chairman pointed to multiple taxation as another major hindrance to trade in the country.

He stated that consultations with relevant Ministries and agencies saddled with the responsibility of taxation are presently on.

“It is more of a constitutional issue from discussions with the federal Inland Revenue service it was discovered that at federal level  there are about ten different typed of tax, at state level there are about 11 and at local government level there Are about 20 different types of taxes, “ he said.

PR/Hauwa/Williams