. /.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SG/Q2/NGA/4
10 November 1998
(98-4434)
Committee on Safeguards Original:  English
NIGERIA - IMPORT PROHIBITIONS ON SORGHUM,
MILLET, WHEAT FLOUR, GYPSUM AND KAOLIN
Replies to Follow-up Questions from the UNITED STATES1
Regarding the Notification of NIGERIA2
The following communication, dated 2 November 1998, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Nigeria.
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Questions
1. The United States has been unable to locate any documentation indicating that the
Government of Nigeria had notified as safeguard measures the import prohibitions applicable toany of the five products listed in G/SG/N/2/NGA, to the GATT Contracting Parties, as required
by paragraph 2 of Article XIX of the GATT 1947.  Pl ease provide references to the each of the
applicable GATT documents by which the impo rt prohibitions were notified to the GATT
Contracting Parties.
2. Please identify the Contracting Parties that ha d substantial export interests in each of the
products concerned, as of the dates Nigeria has represented to be the dates on which the measures
were first imposed (1986 for Wheat Flour; 1994 for Sorghum, Millet, Gypsum and Kaolin).  Did
the Government of Nigeria afford each of thos e contracting parties an opportunity to consult
about the proposed measures prio r to their imposition, as required by paragraph 2 of Article XIX
of GATT 1947?
3. In G/SG/N/2/NGA (reply 2), Nigeria states that because the products at issue were not
subject to a tariff concession, the import prohibitions on those products “were not generally
subject to GATT disciplines on trade defence measures”.
- Please explain the basis for the apparen t assertion that Article XIX of GATT 1947
applied only to products subject to a tariff concession;
Assuming arguendo that Article XIX were inapplicable to these products, then
how would the import prohibitions be p re-existing Article XIX measures covered
by Article 10 of the Agreement on Safeguards?
                                                     
1 G/SG/Q2/NGA/3
2 G/SG/N/2/NGAG/SG/Q2/NGA/4
Page 2
Reply
In response to the follow-up questions raised by the United States in respect of Notification
No. G/SG/N/2/NGA of 16 March 1998 and document G/SG/Q2/NGA/2 of 26 March 1998, the
Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria wishes to clarify further as follows:
1. Under the Customs Act and the Customs Dutie s (Dumped and Subsidized Goods) Act 1958,
the power to impose quantitative restrictive trade measures or vary duties on imports is vested in the
President-in-Council.  Nigeria has already acknowledged the inconsistency of this legislation with
relevant provisions of the WTO, particularly as regards issues relating to consultations, investigations
and institutional framework.  It is in the light of this that at the 1998 Trade Policy Review of Nigeria,
Member States were assured that no new measures will be taken until an appropriate WTO-consistentdomestic legislation is enacted.  Nigeria also undertook to phase-out the existing prohibitions on
wheat flour, sorghum, gypsum and kaolin.
2. In the light of the present reform process in Nigeria, the Government of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria wishes to assure all Member States that the existing quantitative restrictive trade measureswill be duly eliminated in line with Nigeria's WTO obligations.  A suitable proposal is already before
the Government and will be notified to the WTO as soon as it is approved.
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