Thread by @fimiletoks

Yes, let me try and explain it clearly. Ecowas has what is called Common External Tariff / duty. The breakdown is shown in the document below. The tariff is meant to promote trade, industrialization and development within the region. When the chinese, lebanese and some Nigerians

https://twitter.com/yakub_mojeed/status/1328390612735975424

Import these items through Cotonou and Togo ports, some of them are repackaged e.g Rice and others are moved through the land border under Basic social goods, Raw goods and capital goods. Cars for example will fall under capital goods. They pay 0% duty or 5%..

These goods are not produced in those countries so ordinarily they should not qualify for CET. They should be shipped to the port of final destination directly or through trans-shipment to our port.
The disparity in tariff encourages smuggling and dumping.

Cotonou is earning full duty at their port but Nigeria gets next to nothing. We have the option of lowering our tariff to match Cotonou's cost but that will impact our revenue projection from customs. Less money for 200m people compared to 11m citizens in Cotonou.

This is an unnecessary trade war with a country the size of Lagos that produces nothing except pineapples and other food items. We will be hurting ourselves and our finances. To me it makes no sense.
We have other issues like port congestion, multiple tariffs at our ports...

With automation and the expansion of other ports in Nigeria and proper manning of our borders, we can solve these problems. Nigeria controls 76% of the trade in W. Africa, we shouldn't be dancing to the tunes of Togo and Cotonou. They are parasites..