NIGERIAN ENTREPRENEURS KEY INTO EUROPEAN UNION'S GSP

The Permanent Secretary, FMITI, Amb. Nura Abba Rimi, 5th from left, Representative of the Director Trade Department, Racheal Mande Gorge, 3rd right, European union Director-General, Gary Williamson, taxation and customs union (EU-TAUXID) and his delegates to Nigeria.

"EU's GSP eliminates import taxes on items entering the EU market from vulnerable developing nations." Perm Secretary, FMITI, Amb. Nura Abba Rimi

"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."

A delegation from the European Union General Taxation and Customs Union (EU-TAUXID) are currently in Abuja to exchange ideas with Government officials of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. 

This was part of the information made available to journalists on Monday when the EU-TAUXID delegation visited the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry's headquarters, Ambassador Nura Abba Rimi.

Ambassador Nura Abba Rimi, while playing host to his guests, revealed that over 100 enterprises in Nigeria have keyed into the European Union's Generalised Scheme of Preferences GSP.

 Amb Rimi also disclosed that 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.

In a statement, the Permanent Secretary stated, "We have over 100 companies that have keyed into these programmes and effort is being made to disseminate information in all geo- political zone of the country and to let interested people and companies know about the conditions that have 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.

While delivering her remarks, the Head of the Ministry's Trade Department, Rachel Mande George, stated, "The European Union Director-General, Taxation and Customs Union (TAUXID), Gary Williamson, is on a trade mission in Nigeria to access the GSP Preferential Rules of Origin."

It was said that "the meeting is aimed at bringing together stakeholders from FMITI, Customs and the EU delegation to discuss on critical policy issues associated with the European Union Generalised System of Preference, the EU -REX system with the objective of addressing key challenges." 

In his speech, the European Union Director-General of Taxation and Customs Union stated, "We have 65 countries 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."

He went on to say "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 the 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.

Henry David 

ACIO 

For : Director Press and Public Relations 

26th February , 2024