Esther Oluku
Nigeria and the Benin Republic have agreed to meet on Monday, July 24, on the provisions of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS).
The Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Mr. Adewale Adeniyi made the disclosure at a meeting with stakeholders at the Seme-Krake Border Command.
Adeniyi explained that the meeting, which would hold in Benin Republic, would set the tone for trade agreements beneficial to both countries to deepen the provisions of the ETLS as a precursor to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He pointed out that preferential trade agreements “has been the bedrock of prosperous nations across the world.”
He added that the development of geopolitical blocs “is hinged on policies and agreements which grant trade benefits to nations believed to share complementary needs.”
He said such symbiotic relationship “is needed to enhance the efficiency of the customs services of both countries as behoves neighbours and to strengthen the process of trade facilitation and economic development.
“We are already familiar with the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme which started over 30 years ago. While we are grappling with this, other parts of the world have made significant progress.
“We discover that with these places, the biggest trade partners are those who are within the preferential trade area. If we look at Europe, for example, the biggest trade partners are Germany and France.
If you look at South Korea and Japan, they are the biggest trading partners. While they trade with other parts of the world, they trade with themselves more.
“What this portends for us is that while we trade with other regional ports outside ECOWAS, we still have to define our economic prosperity in the framework of the trade that we conduct with ourselves within ECOWAS.
There is so much that we can trade. There is so much depth that we can look out for when we define our future in terms of an inward looking economic development model. This is what ETLS is all about. This is what AfCFTA is all about.
“Whether we like it or not, the task is suspension of customs duty on goods that are traded within this economic bloc. In Nigeria Customs Service, for example, the major things we are learning will be origin, preferential trade and other economic matters,” the comptroller general noted.
He, therefore, urged stakeholders not to work in isolation, but embrace the changing economic times, which would usher in great good for all.
He ordered the rationalising of checkpoints along the Seme-Lagos trade corridor to cut down on encumbrances to legitimate trade, saying proliferation “has become a national embarrassment, which must be checked.”
He noted that although aware of the security threats closing some checkpoints might bring, residents should be on guard to offer security information to appropriate authorities to safeguard the sanity of the area.
According to him, plans are underway to deploy technology in accounting for the informal trade sector along the border corridor to make for a holistic aggregate of the trade volume as well as build the sector into a robust industry.
