General

On February 15, Ezra Yakusak, the chief executive of the Nigerian Export Promotion Commission (NEPC), said that the recently released Developing Countries Trade Plan (DCTS) of the United Kingdom would further support the sustainable growth of the international trade export sector of oil in Nigeria and Africa, and the share of international trade exports in the United Kingdom market was expected to increase from 0.3% to 5%, or 14 billion pounds, by 2030.

Yakusak said that the new DCTS plan implemented this year aims to replace the previous GSP plan of the UK, improve the opportunities for developing countries to enter the UK market through more generous unilateral tariff preferences and simplified rules of origin, promote trade between the UK and developing countries, and support sustainable economic growth of developing countries.

Yakusak believes that DCTS is much more generous than the GSP of the European Union and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) of the United States. Under the DCTS plan, 3000 new products of Nigeria enjoy duty-free treatment for the first time, including not only raw material products but also value-added products, such as processed sesame oil, cotton clothing, cocoa butter and cocoa paste. According to the new plan, 99% of the goods exported by Nigeria to the UK can enjoy duty-free treatment, while the current average tariff level of these goods is 7%. This means that relevant exports will be more competitive in the UK market.

Yakusak pointed out that DCTS is expected to promote Nepal's export of non-oil products to the UK, including cocoa, fertilizer, sesame, ginger, cashew nuts, natural rubber, cotton, frozen shrimp, banana and tomato.

Yakusak expressed regret at the challenges of restraining the realization of the export potential of international trade in Nigeria, and stressed that the next step would be to improve the understanding of Nigerian exporters on making full use of DCTS, and provide more solutions to the technical and operational challenges faced by Nigerian international trade exporters.