The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has declared that the country risks a loss of $1.3tn in tariff revenue if it signs the Economic Community of West African States/European Union Economic Partnership Agreement.
The President, MAN, Dr. Frank Jacobs, said this in a statement made available to our correspondent on Monday.
“Nigeria will incur a significant revenue loss through the removal of tariff estimated at about $1.3tn,” he stated.
The ECOWAS/EU economic pact will feature prominently in discussions to be held by officials of the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s today (Tuesday).
MAN, which registered a strong opposition to the pact in the past, has maintained its position in the light of the current recession in the country.
According to Jacobs, the pact will kill government’s efforts at resource-based industrialisation.
He said, “The recent government policy of resource-based industrialisation aimed at utilising the country’s natural resources to produce goods that the country needs and which will ensure a sustainable and enduring industrialisation will automatically be killed.
“Companies, which have already started investing in the production of raw materials and intermediate products, will be forced to close down.”
He added that the pact would also frustrate current efforts by manufacturers to export non-oil manufactured goods, noting, “The recent surge in the export of non-oil manufactured products will be drastically reduced.”
Noting that the country is currently challenged, the MAN president urged the government not to compound the situation by appending its signature or domesticating the EPA.
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