Nigeria Customs Collaborates With EU on Export Trade Facilitation
In its drive to encourage exportation and improve on Nigeria’s balance of trade, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has collaborated with the Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) of the European Union (EU) for efficient export monitoring and trade facilitation.
In a meeting with a delegation from EU at the Corporate Headquarters of the NCS on Wednesday, February 27, 2024, the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, announced that the service is collaborating with DG TAXUD to improve efficiency in export monitoring and documentation.
With the Nigeria Customs Service as the authority for rules of origin, the Comptroller General assured that the Service will do all it can to provide a seamless process, adding that peace will prevail if trade is permitted to flourish.
This development is coming on the backdrop of challenges encountered in the export value chain where Nigerian goods are sometimes returned on the premise of poor quality, inadequate storage and unsustainable packaging.
According to the Comptroller General, “As part of our outreach program, we are also working with other agencies of the Nigerian government so that we maximize these opportunities. In the past, we’ve had goods from Nigeria returned because of quality, storage, and all of that.
“We have moved to establish a ‘one-stop-shop’ export seat for export documentation so that it will help us reduce the time taken for Nigerian exporters to get their goods out of our port. Earlier this month, we launched the Time Release Studies, which we are targeting towards importing of goods and how much it takes for businessmen to clear their goods in the port.
“We are also going to launch a similar exercise to have a scientific measure of how long and how much it costs our businessmen to export their products. The most important part is to identify if there are bureaucratic modules, procedures, or laws that are creating delays so that people can get their things off our port with speed.
“My intention for us is to have a system that is better, faster, and easier for us to confirm your request within a very short period. I want us to talk about exportation like we all talk about importation.”Responding, a representative of the EU Directorate-General Taxation and Customs Union, Rules of Origin, Mr. Gary Wilkinson, noted the tariff discount for exported products is pegged at 4 per cent adding that Nigerian products, when exported, get a discount.
He said that specific rules have been put in place to ascertain the origin of products under the Generalized System of Preference GSP scheme.
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