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Nigeria needs to improve trade relations with the U.S
Guardian Nigeria
Follow
3/24/2025
Category
🗞
News
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00:00
Interesting times, really, you know, Trump 2.0 has brought a lot of shift, disruptions
00:07
to the global trade.
00:09
And I think for some time this is what we're going to be looking at, it's going to be seen.
00:14
And then it's the onus of different countries now to find ways of addressing these issues
00:22
on a bilateral basis or multilateral basis.
00:25
But what this introduces is more of a protectionism, which goes against the global trade doctrine
00:34
of free trade.
00:36
Free trade is supposed to bring prosperity, supposed to expand, you know, the economy
00:40
of the world in general, and where there's competition, and of course when there's competition,
00:47
contributions bring about the best in product, in pricing.
00:50
But with what is happening now, if you analyze it properly, in some cases, yes, there might
00:57
be a case where you can make for increased increment in tariffs.
01:02
But the way this approach is done is what is really important, and not about the way
01:08
I think the U.S. is going about it in a way right now, you know, in some cases you could
01:13
talk about a bit of arm-twisting.
01:15
But if you look at, and I want to make, refer to some specific cases, an interesting one
01:20
which I read about recently, about tariffs between India and America, where you have
01:26
a situation where drinks going into India from the U.S. attracts a tariff of about 250%.
01:36
And the U.S. is saying if you're imposing a 250% tariff on goods going to your country,
01:42
then we should also have to countermeasures, yes, because they want to keep jobs at home,
01:46
they want to encourage manufacturing.
01:49
And so if you look at it, you know, on one hand, then you can make a case.
01:54
But generally speaking, like I said, if you look at the case of Canada, you look at the
01:58
case of China, how is it going to impact on even consumers in those countries?
02:03
It's going to be a lot of changes, a lot of impact on manufacturing, production, and consumers.
02:10
Ultimately, everything goes to the consumers.
02:13
Prices of cars are going to increase because of prices and increase of tariffs in aluminum,
02:18
in steel, which are major raw material used to produce vehicles.
02:22
So you can see those changes already.
02:24
Now, for the consuming country, for the U.S. itself, counter-tariffs from other countries,
02:31
also it's going to affect them widely.
02:33
Now, coming down, holding down to Africa, in case in point for Nigeria, our trade deficit
02:40
with the U.S. right now, it's decreasing.
02:43
So that's good news for us on one hand, because from about $1.6 billion in our favor, right
02:50
now it has come down to about $1.4 billion.
02:53
So if the U.S. is to look at it and say, OK, talking about balance of trade, what do we
02:58
need to do for us to balance, or maybe it's tilted unfavorably so much to the U.S., Nigeria
03:06
does not have that kind of situation.
03:08
But of course, we have to look at what to do to improve trade between the U.S. and Nigeria
03:14
as well and have it in a way that will be more balanced.
03:17
So the spotlight's not on Nigeria right now.
03:20
But for some other countries like South Africa, there's a lot of spotlight on them.
03:24
Of course, for South Africa also, there's also the political angle, which tariff is
03:30
now being put forward as a major thing.
03:33
So for South Africa, it's going to affect them quite well, because the volumes of trade
03:38
between South Africa and the U.S. is more.
03:41
So what you're seeing also that the ambassador has recently been told to leave the U.S.,
03:46
and it's adduced to their policy of land, where land is appropriated and given to South
03:54
Africans.
03:55
Even though South Africans have said themselves that, no, it's not like that.
03:58
It's open.
03:59
It's supposed to provide a level playing ground, a competitive playing ground for people who
04:04
own land.
04:05
So that is going on.
04:08
Egypt also is another case that they will be looking at, because they have more trade
04:15
volumes.
04:16
There's a lot of grants given to Egypt to help their economy.
04:22
So that focus, as it changes, that might come to play, even though the Middle East issue,
04:28
balancing of the political interests in the Middle East, will help to douse the issue
04:33
of Egypt.
04:34
We're still redirecting and beaming the spotlight on NIDRA at this moment.
04:37
Now, it's also important to take cues from the global realignment at this moment and
04:42
ensuring that relations are mutually beneficial.
04:45
We've definitely had a whole lot of conversations around this.
04:48
And one of the highlights we've had so far under this administration is the president's
04:54
foreign trips also leading to about $50.8 billion in terms of investment pool we've
04:58
had so far.
04:59
So how is the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce also fostering engagement within
05:06
this lines of having a bigger pool, a concentration here, and activities on this side, in this
05:12
part of the world?
05:13
Because at the end of the day, when we're looking at the future of, take for example,
05:17
how is the U.S. looking at Nigerian prospects?
05:22
How is NIDRA pitching its tent to other global partners?
05:25
At this moment, we have to be tactical.
05:27
But what is some of the feedback we've gotten from the NACC, and how is this also shaping
05:32
the sort of recommendations the government should also take forward?
05:36
Right.
05:37
Interesting.
05:38
For us at the NACC, we've started different engagements with the private sector especially,
05:44
and also with some of the states in the U.S.
05:48
Only recently, we were in the state of Dallas to discuss about setting up direct flights
05:55
between Nigeria and Dallas, and also engaged with the state of Michigan.
06:00
Michigan has a lot of Afro-Caribbean population, and we see a nexus between Michigan and Nigeria,
06:10
or Africa, in pushing goods to those places because of the huge number that they have.
06:17
Now, looking at it to have a balanced trade, which will seek to promote a win-win situation,
06:26
we are looking at some specific products that we can send in over there.
06:31
We set up a processing facility, and then we export to different parts of the world.
06:36
So that brings a win-win situation.
06:38
Well, that was Cherie Balogun, National President of the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce.
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