The Nigerian Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment says over 100 enterprises in Nigeria have keyed into the European Union’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP).
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Ambassador, Nura Rimi, said this while hosting the visiting European Union General Taxation and Customs Union (EU-TAUXID) delegation at the Ministry Headquarters in Abuja Nigeria’s capital.
The Permanent Secretary in a statement said, over 100 companies have keyed into the program, noting that effort is being made to disseminate information in all geo- political zones of the country and to inform people and companies about the conditions to be met.
According to Nura, “The system came into existence in 1971, we did not key into the system till 2019 that is about three decades after it started notwithstanding, Nigeria is making giant stride in order to capitalise on the opportunity in order to expand our exports, this goes side by side with the quality of the goods we produce in the country”
“Goods going into European Union must originate from Nigeria under certificate of origin, it also has to be certified and we have a system of certification to ensure that those goods really conform with the standard for the EU, in order to benefit from the GSP, I want to assure you of our preparedness and readiness for successful partnership” He told the EU delegates.”
The European Union Director-General of Taxation and Customs Union, Gary Williamson stated that 65 countries are in the GSP scheme.
“Nigeria is one of them, GSP is to give you preference tariffs under unilateral agreement, you can send goods to the EU and you gain preferences, unfortunately we do not get preference for sending goods to Nigeria, that will require a bilateral trade agreement, which might happen one day.”
“We have in Lagos where exporter of frozen fish exports its product to EU , we can see the advantage of the GSP scheme from this angle , We also had a meeting in Lagos with Nigeria Export Promotion Council , which was very useful , where we got to understand the issues with exporting into the EU”
“We are hopeful we can have a little information from you on how the GSP works in Nigeria; at the end of the week, we hope to draft a report, the report will explain what happened during the monitoring visit; if there is anything we find that we need to bring to your attention, we can provide some recommendations to you, and we hope you can accept those recommendations; the aim is to have a joint report, you sign and I sign it, so that we have agreed commitment,” Williamson added.
The EU’s GSP eliminates import taxes on items entering the EU market from vulnerable developing nations.
By eliminating such import levies, the EU’s GSP assists developing countries in reducing poverty and creating jobs based on international norms and principles such as labour and human rights, environmental and climate protection, and good governance.
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