Even as it has officially commenced implementation of the ECOWAS Common External Tariff (CET), the Nigeria Customs Service has also announced the removal of several items from the import prohibition list, top among which are textiles and furniture.
Disclosing this at an official launch of the CET in Lagos yesterday, Zone 'A' Coordinator of Customs, Mr. Victor Gbemudu (an Assistant Comptroller General) said that the banned items are now being accommodated under the Import Adjustment Tax (IAT) in the new CET.
Even as it has officially commenced implementation of the ECOWAS Common External Tariff (CET), the Nigeria Customs Service has also announced the removal of several items from the import prohibition list, top among which are textiles and furniture.
Disclosing this at an official launch of the CET in Lagos yesterday, Zone 'A' Coordinator of Customs, Mr. Victor Gbemudu (an Assistant Comptroller General) said that the banned items are now being accommodated under the Import Adjustment Tax (IAT) in the new CET.
Mr Gbemudu, who represented the Customs Comptroller General; Dikko Abdulahi Inde also promised that by 2020, there would no longer be any item on the import prohibition list as everything would have been harmonized. He said that the CET is subject to review every five years.
He however said that poultry products still remain banned as government cannot allow their importation from outside the country.
"If you go through the Common External Tariff you will see that a lot of items have been removed from the prohibition list and it is going to be implemented; mostly, furniture, textiles and the rest of them, most of them will now pay duty and will have Import Adjustment Tax (IAT)"
"The CET is not new, it embraces about 15 countries which include Nigeria, all we are just doing is to bring stakeholders to understand what the CET is all about, to a large extent it comes with some adjustments for member countries", he explained.
Speaking on the advantage of the CET on Nigerian economy, Gbemudu assured that there would no longer be policy somersault on importation, saying that importers can now project and plan five years ahead since the duty payable will remain the same.
He charged stakeholders not to blame the Customs or the federal government for any inconveniences in CET, saying that it is not peculiar to Nigeria, but that it is a regional thing.
There are 97 chapters in the CET, and 5,899 tariff headings, out of this, every member country is entitled to 3% adjustment which translates into 177 tariff headings which enables most member countries to protect their industries.
Gbemudu said that customs introduced the Import Adjustment Tax (IAT) in order to protect certain policies of government such such as the sugar policy, agricultural policy and solid mineral policy among others.
Also making a presentation on the new tariff structure, Assistant Controller of Customs, Systems Audit and a member of the ECOWAS CET Committee; Tony Ayalogu said that proper implementation of CET will commence only by 2020.
"The duration of the IAT, the prohibition list will gradually phase-away and ultimately end by 2019, we are in a transition stage which is five years, every year the Ministry of Finance will continue to review the prohibition list and it will continue to decrease and by 2019 it would have been phased out", he added, even as he affirmed that: "What this means is that proper CET will start in 2020".
He informed stakeholders that the CET has nothing to do with port charges, and that it may not necessarily bring down the cost of doing business at Nigerian ports.
Also speaking at the launch, President of ECOWAS Commission; Mr Kadre Ouedraogo, assured member-countries that the leadership of ECOWAS would ensure the regulation of all the protocols of the CET in all member countries.
"I want to assure you that ECOWAS will make sure that the protocols of the CET will be enforced,’’ he said.
He advised that countries should make their ports comfortable enough to boost trade facilitation.
On his part, Mr Muda Yusuf, the Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), urged the Customs service to publish a comprehensive soft copy of the tariff on the agency's website for stakeholders to access.
Yusuf also urged the government to put efforts together to fight dumping and faking of goods, which he said, was killing the Nigerian industries.
Also speaking,the President, Nigerian Association of Government-Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Chief Eugene Nweke urged stakeholders to invest in training programmes to meet up with the demands of full implementation of the CET.
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