Posted by FSonline on
The federal government may pay fine for its decision to ban the importation of rice into the country from 2007, Mr Mike Ejemba.....
The federal government may pay fine for its decision to ban the importation of rice into the country from 2007, Mr Mike Ejemba, the former secretary to the Presidential Rice Initiative Committee, has said.
Ejemba said on Monday in Lagos that the planned ban would infringe on the trade agreement between Nigeria and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
"Under the WTO agreement, there is no ban," he said, adding that such a development could lead to the withdrawal of WTO benefits to Nigeria in the area of agricultural imputs. He said the sanction could attract a reciprocal action from Nigerian trading partners as well as take Nigeria to the dispute settlement unit of the WTO.
"If Nigeria is found guilty, she would lose substantial revenue in millions of dollars as penalty and legal bills,'' he said.
Ejemba blamed such mistakes on lack of knowledge and experience by those who negotiated trade treaties for Nigeria under the Uruguay agreement between 1995 and 2000.
"They get a ban-bound tariff of 150 per cent tariff line on traded agricultural commodities and additional 80 per cent for administrative measures.
Taking a holistic look at the agreement, Ejemba, a retired civil servant, said it was one-sided and beneficial to the country's trading partners.
According to him, such development, as well as subsidy on agriculture by these countries, encourage the influx of their goods to the Nigerian market to the detriment of our farmers. He suggested that the interest of local farmers could be protected without incurring the wrath of the WTO by raising the tariff on imported rice by about 50 per cent and that such a policy would make more money available for the development of paddy rice.
Ejemba said government should monitor the nation's porous borders and check the activities of smugglers so that the policy could be effective. He said the introduction of border markets to regulate the movement of goods within the region could assist in checking the activities of smugglers.
He said the challenges facing local farmers included unpredictable weather, low returns, lack of infrastructure, dearth of modern mills and shortage of storage facilities.