Nigeria: Port Decongestion And International Trade

It is no news to say that organisation and management of Nigeria's ports and the transportation system in Nigeria generally is a disaster. The ports are lumpishly and corpulently inadequate. Paper work that are cardinal and needed to export and import are fearsomely voluminous and could take months for what would take a day or two in properly harmonised and regulated societies. Talk about the road network and rail network that support the sea ports, you would realise that Nigeria is still what it is, a bewilderingly and discomfortingly third world country.

Nigeria is a country of about 140 million people which effectively makes it the largest market in Africa for consumer goods. Majority of goods consumed by Nigerians are finished products that come in from other countries in far off continents. The implication of the above asserted situation is that Nigeria needs a vast number of sea ports to handle the large number of containers that come into the country daily. Unfortunately the number of sea ports in Nigeria are not even enough to handle the sea traffic that flows into neighbouring Ghana.

Another aspect of sea port development that has not been properly harnessed by the Nigerian government is the area of inland port construction. Nigeria is blessed by several major rivers. The most prominent are the rivers Niger and Benue. These two rivers have not been properly harnessed for commercial and industrial transportation. Along their routes at several strategic locations inland ports could be constructed, and these inland ports would greatly assist to open up the great Nigerian hinterland for more prosperous commerce and industrialisation.

Nigeria also needs more export processing zones (EPZ). These export processing zones should be constructed close to the sea or major inland rivers, as this would allow the construction of ports for the use of the zone. This would effectively make such zones the focal point of new and great industrial cities exploding from such focal points.

Custom and other agencies who handle commerce and bureaucratic work at the ports should be properly trained and remunerated to enable faster and corruption-free flow of business at the ports. Generally all those appointed by the government to handle affairs at the ports must be persons of proven character, who are actually professionals in the duty call at the ports.



A great number of Nigerian youths reside outside the shores of Nigeria and are industrious and desire to engage in export and import businesses between their host countries and their home country Nigeria. Unfortunately, Nigeria is not sufficiently prepared to handle the volume of incoming traffic this segment of Nigerians alone are already generating. Nigerians at home are becoming seriously interested in international business and are struggling extremely hard to generate capital to finance their import and export ventures, however conditions in the country Nigeria seem to be the major obstacle to the adventurous and enterprising spirit and resolve of Nigerians.

To clear a cargo of merchandise in Nigeria through customs and other bureaucratic agencies would require at least 13 different sets of documents and could take not less than 30 days. Nigeria is about the most expensive country in the world to engage in export and import enterprise. The length of time and unjustified high cost and attendant bureaucratic anti-business agencies are baffling. Why on earth should Nigeria erect barriers on the path of smooth and legal businesses at the sea ports. Countries all over the world are doing what ever they can, to make it easier for their enterprising citizens and foreigners with funds to expend on investment in their countries, to find it much easy to do business; ironically Nigeria seems to be comfortable with simply announcing to the international community that it desires investments and trading partners with no corresponding efforts to put in place the proper infrastructure and business friendly policies. In this particular scenario, the idea of making Nigeria the most difficult country on planet earth to engage in export and import venture beats every reasonable imagination.

With China joining the World Trade Organisation, a lot of Chinese goods and products from other far eastern countries now flood Nigeria. All these contribute to choking and cloging traffic in Nigeria's sea ports. With no solution in sight, ports in neighbouring countries like Benin republic, Togo and Ghana are attracting cargo coming into Nigeria and are reaping the attendant financial boost.

Nigeria is the largest exporter of crude petroleum on the African continent and currently the third largest supplier to the United States. This means that on this plank alone Nigeria should have at least twice the number of total sea-port handling capacity available at the moment, to handle the oil and oil-allied export.

A practise that is tolerated in Nigeria whereby companies are allowed to use the port storage facilities for long term storage must be discouraged. Storage facilities at the ports should be for short term storage for containers that have just arrived and are being cleared. One wonders if demurrage which is the detention in port of a vessel by the ship owner, as in loading or unloading beyond the time allowed or agreed upon is penalised properly and whether the practised would be continued.

A country with a huge population like Nigeria, which said population translates into one of the world's biggest markets should have in place a policy that allows private companies to build and manage ports. Agreed there could be serious security implication in allowing private concerns to build and manage sea ports. However a man with sight impairment will not reject corrective eye glasses meant to improve his sight because glass could be potentially dangerous. What the government needs to do is to get involve in the project of building private ports from the inception, by vetting and approving the plans. supervising the construction at all stages. The government should also carry out a serious background check on the true ownership of the companies allowed to venture into the project. The government should also be in charge of security at the ports after they are constructed. All other aspects of management that can not be left in the hands of foreigners or private concerns should be handled by the government. The bottom line is that there should be enough sea ports to handle Nigeria's vastly growing sea based trade.

Chinese Authorities Announce Shipment Of U.S. Homing Pigeons Destroyed Last Month

Beijing, China (AHN) - China on Friday announced that it had destroyed a shipment of 41 live homing pigeons from the United States. Beijing's Inspection and Quarantine Bureau said it destroyed the birds last month after finding they didn't meet import standards and the number and description of birds did not match the shipping invoice.

Officials said that some of the birds were sick and the Bureau didn't think the problem could be remedied by observing the birds in quarantine, according to Central China Television reports.

Raising pigeons is popular in China where the birds are also served in restaurants.

The homing pigeons were seized at Beijing's airport, then killed and incinerated a month ago. It was the latest volley in rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China after several tainted Chinese products were recently pulled from American store shelves.

Britain's Guardian Unlimited reported Friday that it was unclear why Chinese officials waited until now to announce the homing pigeons had been destroyed last month.

China, with its growing economic dependence on the exports it sends around the world had watched helplessly as its tainted products were pulled from store shelves in the U.S. and elsewhere sparking questions about the safety of Chinese made products in general.

Toxic ingredients in medicine from China killed people in Panama. Then a poison ingredient in toothpaste from China resulted in pulling that from store shelves in the United States and Europe. In the meantime, the U.S. also banned Chinese shrimp and four kinds of fish after finding cancer-causing chemicals and other contaminants in them.

At about the same time, toys imported from China were found to be coated with lead paint that has been banned in the U.S. since the 1970's because it causes brain and kidney damage in children. Those toys were yanked from store shelves, as children's jewelry from China that contained lead had been removed from stores last year. Earlier this year the largest pet food recall ever was sparked by a tainted ingredient from China that killed many pets and sickened numerous others.

China finally began retaliating by suspending some U.S. pork and poultry imports after officials said they had disease concerns about some of the products.

At stake for China are billions of dollars its exports every year. But the recent problems with tainted Chinese products have fueled concerns about the United State's growing trade deficit with China. It now stands at $2 billion and many critics say it is only that high because Communist China is keeping its own currency artificially low to make its products unfairly cheap against world competition.

That has prompted Congress to consider import duties or penalties on Chinese imports if that nation doesn't allow its currency to float in value against the world's currencies, according to Guardian Unlimited reports.

Gas Import from Myanmar

Energy Bangla report indicates that Bangladeshi private sector entrepreneurs have started showing interest about gas from Myanmar. With the growing uncertainties in the Gas supply to the industrial city, Chittagong and abundance of Gas in the next door neighbor Myanmar it will be the only logical that commercial interest will prevail over other reasons. If the Bangladeshis get the huge lands on lease in Rakhaine for cultivation it will be only logical to set up additional Fertilizer Plants in Chittagong using Gas from Myanmar as the existing gas from Bangladesh National Grid will not support any additional Fertilizer or Power plant in the area for the time being.



The new Bangladeshi initiative in Chittagong area like deep water drilling and Cairn or Total drilling efforts in their allotted blocks are still a long away to bear the fruits. If Bangladesh can now build a pipeline from Rakhaine to Chittagong via Teknaf and Cox’sBazar it will open a new dimension in the gas based industrialization in the greater Chittagong region. It does not matter if Bangladesh discovers more gas in the region in future the gas pipeline will ensure Bangladesh gas market to access the reliable supply from Myanmar. Many countries of the world have huge energy reserve but for economic reasons and for future energy security they import from possible regional source. Think of USA. They have huge petroleum reserve – both oil and Gas. Still they are the largest importer of both. Their aggression in different places in the world and hide and seek game with Bin Laden basically emanate from their hunger for gas and oil. Bangladesh may take several years to explore its own frontiers for gas. But they can not afford the gas based economy to get starved and continue to struggle.



If one has opportunity to read the William Brothers appraisal report of Gas Supply to Chittagong Area based on which Bakhrabad Field development was taken up it will be found that several other gas based industries were taken into consideration. But other than CUFL, KAFCO and the remaining has not come up. It took about 25 years for the Chittagong market to grow to its full potential as conceived in late seventies. Even then national gas grid is struggling to meet the 280-300 MMCFD demand of Chittagong area. KAFCO second unit can not go ahead at Chittagong without assured supply of Gas. GOB proposed to KAFCO to set up the plant at Sirajgonj and assured to buy the entire production but KAFCO is not agreeing. TATA proposal for fertilizer plant at Chittagong may not proceed without assurance of gas supply. No major investor will dare investment in the Korean EPZ without stable power supply and gas supply in the area. These are only possible if adequate gas supply to generate additional power is available and if additional gas is available to fuel other industries. So in consideration of all above a large enough gas transmission pipeline capable of delivering 300-350 MMCFD gas without compression may be issue of discussion with Myanmar team when they arrive in Bangladesh soon.



The pipeline route may be Myanmar offshore i.e. Sittwe in the Rakhaine province to Chittagong via Tekhnaf and Coxsbazar. Gas to these areas will create avenues to industrially develop these two tourist resorts. One single gas field has reserve of about 5.8 TCF. Bangladesh government without bothering for donor funding may let private sector developers build transmission pipelines. In fact the government should only open the transmission segment for private sector. Private sector can either develop the pipeline themselves of let GTCL built and operate on their behalf. But whatever is the modus operandi it will require an agreement between the two Governments to agree on cross border trading of gas. If the negotiation starts straight way the contract may be concluded by January 2008 and it the construction of the pipeline starts in the winter of 2008 early Gas may be available by end 2009.



If the above situation can be reached Bangladesh may go for KAFCO second unit and any other major fertilizer, power and other gas based industries in Chittagong straight away. If Gas from Myanmar can cater bulk of the Chittagong requirement Gas of our National Grid can be utilized in the other areas without stressing our existing fields too much and thereby causing damage to the reservoirs. This move may get serious resistance from certain quarter which is beneficiaries of IOC operations in Bangladesh. But just realize Bangladesh is struggling in meeting the payments of IOCs now. Their share in national supply is 43% and growing. Right now the only possible increase of supply is from Bibiyana . So soon the IOC share may exceed 50 %. Bangladesh can not afford to increase its gas price every now and then.



Our gas demand is increasing @ 10% annually. It is very much linked with the growth of GDP. If investors are ensured of uninterrupted power supply as well as gas supply our GDP may see double digit growth in a couple of years. Let us now think of a situation like this in our Gas mix for a while till we have different scenario.



Petrobangla Gas 50%

IOC Gas 40 %

Import 10%.



In 20011 our Gas demand may be 3500 MMCFD. In that case if the import is 350 MCFD and our own production will be 1750 MMCFD. This may not stress our reserve and resource to a level of panic as being apprehended now. In the meantime exploration may change the scenario. But whatever happens we should approach gas import initiative from Myanmar with open mind and try to have a win- win deal. Import of Gas Myanmar will be much easier than setting up power plant and import power from there.



Let me tell about the North American situation. Canada exports gas to USA from Alberta through Alliance and Other pipelines and then imports also in through other borders. Same is the situation of export import between Mexico and USA. So in situation may alter cases .Who knows?

Strengthen import-product safety

The American product safety system usually gives consumers a sense of security when they go to the marketplace. But that system is in danger of breaking down under a flood of imports mainly, but not only, from China. Recent moves by Congress and the administration rightly seek to address this challenge to public health and safety.

Scandals involving dog food, toothpaste and cough syrup made with potentially fatal and falsely labeled Chinese products, lead paint on toys, and alleged defects in automobile tires and exploding cell-phone batteries have alerted consumer safety experts around the world to the threat of dangerous imports. European Union consumer protection officials are meeting in Beijing this week with their Chinese counterparts. U.S. officials are slated to visit China next week to discuss the same topic: how China intends to prevent recurrences.

The scandals exposed flaws in China's regulation of exports and holes in import controls in many nations. On Monday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization jointly recommend all nations "fill safety gaps" in their import oversight, Food Production Daily reported.

The two U.N. bodies said that they had investigated up to 200 unsafe food import incidents a month in the past year. "Such food safety incidents are often caused by lack of knowledge of food safety requirements and of their implications, or by the illegal and fraudulent use of ingredients including unauthorized food additives or veterinary drugs," they said.

Also on Monday, White House spokesman Tony Snow announced the formation of a cabinet-level "Working Group on Import Safety," ordered by President Bush to report within 60 days on recommendations to improve the safety of food and other imports. Mr. Snow said the move was "not a slap at China," which has complained at being singled out and has placed bans on American imports in a clear tit-for-tat response. But "of all the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, China presents the most diverse set of challenges" to the Food and Drug Administration, its deputy commissioner for international programs, Dr. Murray Lumpkin, told the Senate Commerce Committee on Monday.

Chinese officials insist that 99 percent of the goods China exports meet quality standards, and say foreign media are exaggerating the extent of the problem, The New York Times reported.

But on Monday, the E.U.'s Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Meglena Kuneva, visiting Beijing, rightly said even if only one percent of Chinese consumer exports prove unsafe, "this is still dangerous," according to Forbes Online.

China can only achieve a reputation for reliable consumer products by participating much more actively than it has in international efforts to prevent traffic in unsafe products. Until then, this nation and others absolutely must do what they can to protect their citizens against unsafe imports.

Pakistan imported 4.8mn bales to meet textile demand

KARACHI: The millers, spinning and private sector commercial companies imported around 4.8 million cotton bales from USA, India, Brazil and central Asian countries during the last fiscal July-June 2007, the traders and importers said on Saturday.

The country produced around 12.5 million cotton bales during July-June 2007 while the demand by textile sector stood around 15.5 million bales. The shortfall was met by the imports.

Keeping the past experience, the economic managers of the country on repeated calls by the Ministry of Textile Industry (MINTEX) and local textile industry allowed import of cotton through land route from neighbouring countries including India to reduce the cost of production and cost of import. With the issuance of notification the actual imports would take place and much cheaper cotton would be available to the industry for its consumption.

Ministry of Commerce (MoC) in May 2007 allows import of long staple cotton through land route from India and Uzbekistan. The import of long staple cotton through land route from India would reduce the cost of import and would help local textile industry to enhance its production and its value addition for increase in textile exports.

Long staple cotton will be importable through land route as well. Earlier government has allowed the import of cotton and cotton yarn from India through seas or air. Cotton imported through these means was expensive for the local industry, a senior trader Ghulam Rabbani said. The lint imported from India and United States dominated the cotton market’s volumes during last fiscal year.

“This is not an end to import and we must be ready for a good quantity still to arrive in the country, around 45,000 cotton bales kept arriving,” he added. The country imported around Rs 30 billion worth cotton bales during same period from the foreign buyers.

Mr Rabbani said the federal government has fixed the cotton production target at 14.14 million bales for the new crop.

He said the federal government has fixed cotton sowing target at 8.031 million acres, 6.326 million acres for Punjab and 1.581 million acres for Sindh. NWFP and Balochistan will share the remaining 0.14 million area for cotton production. He said Punjab is likely to produce 11 million bales while Sindh will produce three million bales. Despite the government’s target for the crop season 2007-08, there would be a shortfall of around 3.4 million bales.

During July-June 2007, the cotton yarn exports stood around 619,400 metric tonnes as against 609,680 metric tonnes in the same period last year, cotton cloth export stood around 2036,770 (in thousand square metres) as compared to 2406,594, Bedwear exports stood around 333,895 metric tonnes as compared to 338,686 metric tonnes.

The export of readymade garment stood around 37,496 (in thousand dozen) as compared to 34,045 in same period last year.

Informa economics projected that USDA raised old crop world ending stocks for 06/07 by 980,000 bales to 56.39 million bales. World production for 07/08 was lowered to 115.89 million bales down 110,000 bales from May. World consumption was increased to 127.41 million bales up 410,000 bales from a month earlier.

The unaccounted was left at 5.84 million bales. World ending stocks increased 520,000 bales to 51.23 million bales.

The beginning stocks were 56.39 million bales and the ending stocks are forecast to be 51.23 million bales, which translates to a draw down of 5.16 million bales, normally a bullish omen.

Cotlook reported that at the biennial China international cotton conference, a senior Chinese official indicated that the 06-07 lint outturn may be close to 7.1 million tonnes (32.6 million bales) or larger. This compares to the June USDA estimate of 30.90 million bales. China import activity is expected to jump over the near-term as the trade sees extremely tight stocks in China and a strong world demand for China textiles.

China’s national bureau of statistics released its cotton planting intention survey in 2007. The report showed a small increase over 2006. Xinjiang, which is one-third of china’s total acreage was up 11 percent or 140,000 hectares from 2006.

Soccer is fighting an uphill battle with America's homegrown sports

I participated in The Chronicle Sports Section's Great Debate about pro soccer's survivability in the United States. I took the viewpoint that Major League Soccer still has a tough road ahead of it -- and that for a team such as Real Salt Lake to survive, Utah will need to experience a soccer revolution.
In poured the hate mail.
One online reader said my column made no sense. He said that U.S. soccer has already secured a firm foothold, and concluded his statement with, "You'll understand one day when you actually open your eyes to more than your little corner of the world."
Another said that my argument was so bad that he wouldn't waste his time explaining to me why soccer would be one of the country's three most popular sports "at the expense of either baseball or basketball" within the next 20 years.
What these folks don't realize is that soccer is one of my favorite sports. In fact, I'm such a fan that I went to the World Cup in Germany last year and attended two matches -- including USA/Ghana, the game in which America was eliminated from the tournament.
A few weeks ago, I was in Holland where the European Under-21 Championship was being held and I had the opportunity to witness a nil-nil draw between England and Czech Republic.
Trust me, I know how big soccer is around the world.
But I've also seen how soccer is regarded in is this country.
If you've ever listened to the Jim Rome Show or heard Sports Illustrated writer Frank DeFord go off on one of his anti-soccer tirades, you know how disrespected soccer is in the U.S.
But why do we have these attitudes? What keeps us from enjoying soccer like the rest of the world?
I think the USA's soccer apathy can be linked to a few deeply ingrained beliefs that many Americans share.
Belief No. 1: If there is no scoring, then nothing is happening.
While the rest of the world might exit the stadium after a 0-0 draw believing the match was fraught with tension and drama, Americans often leave feeling gypped, like some sort of refund is in order.
Belief No. 2: There needs to be a winner and a loser.
Soccer, with its low-scoring nature, is prone to end in ties.
To Americans, a tie is like kissing your sister. We'd rather lose than leave the field of play without one side conquering the other.
Belief No. 3: We'd rather do our own thing.
Let's face it -- we're culturally isolated. In other parts of the world, the 6 p.m. news offers a global perspective. In Utah, our local news features a laughably brief "World In a Minute" segment in which a guy who sounds like an auctioneer or the Micro Machines spokesman rattles off the world's news in 60 seconds -- probably without taking a breath. The focus immediately shifts back to domestic issues.
America is a world in itself. It's an arrogant viewpoint, no doubt, but that's exactly how we feel. Over the years, Americans have collectively said to the world, "Keep your silly cricket and boring soccer -- we'll make up our own sports." This attitude ushered in what we Americans call the big three: football, baseball and basketball -- all American-made.
Because of these beliefs -- and the stubbornness that sustains them -- pro soccer in America might survive as a niche sport, but it'll never go mainstream.

U.S. asks WTO to review EU's banana import regime

WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) - The United States asked the World Trade Organization on Friday to investigate the European Union's apparent failure to comply with previous rulings against its banana import regime.

"We share the concern of Ecuador and several other Latin American banana exporters regarding the continued existence of a discriminatory tariff rate quota in the EU's current banana regime," U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said in a statement.

"We are hopeful that this formal step will facilitate the removal of that discrimination."

Schwab's office said the U.S. request stemmed from "the EU's apparent failure to implement the WTO rulings in a 1996 proceeding initiated by Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and the United States.

"That ruling said the EU's banana regime discriminates against bananas originating in Latin American countries and against distributors of such bananas, including several U.S. companies."

The dispute dates back to the creation of the European Union's single market in 1993, when the EU implemented a single banana import regime as part of its effort to eliminate trade barriers between member states.

However, the United States complained the new system created new barriers to bananas exported from Latin America and marketed by U.S. companies such as Chiquita.

Washington brought a WTO complaint and prevailed, eventually winning the right to impose $191 million in retaliatory duties on EU products. It terminated those duties after Brussels committed to shifting to a tariff-only import regime for bananas no later than January 1, 2006.

But the EU adopted a system that allows African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries to export a certain amount of bananas to the EU without paying paying duties, USTR said.

Bananas from Latin American do not have access to this duty-free tariff rate quota and are subject instead to a 176 euro per ton duty, USTR said.

"We regret that efforts between the EU and its Latin American trading partners to negotiate a solution to the banana issue have not been successful," Schwab said.

((Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Chris Wilson; Reuters Messaging: doug.palmer.reuters.com@reuters.net; e-mail: doug.palmer@reuters.com; +1-202-898-8341)) Keywords: USA EU/TRADE BANANAS

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