VICTORIA ONU, ABUJA
DIRECTOR-GENERAL of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the European Union had reported Nigeria to the WTO over the country’s dairy policy.
She disclosed this during a visit to the Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday.
The DG said the WTO received a report from the EU over restrictions on milk and dairy products.
The apex bank had, in July 2019, included milk and dairy products on its list of items not eligible for foreign exchange.
Despite Nigeria’s potential for producing milk, the country still spends between $1.2bn and $1.5bn a year on imports, the apex bank had lamented.
Okonjo-Iweala said the trade block would look into the petition by the EU for a decision on the matter.
But the DG advised the Central Bank to utilise the trade remedy initiative in place at the WTO to protect Nigerian industries.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, told the DG that the process to attract milk and dairy producers into the Nigerian economy had been on for six years.
Emefiele said milk and dairy producers had treated the issue with lack of respect.
He said that one of the producers that had operated in Nigeria for over 60 years had yet to engage in backward integration.
The governor said they were still “comfortable importing products.”
