Labour Rejects 2005 Budgetary Provision on Tariffs
By Chris Nwachuku
Organised labour has rejected the provision of trade tariffs in the 2005 appropriation bill currently before the National Assembly, saying if passed into law, the manufacturing sector would collapse.
Particularly, the protector of workers' rights frowned upon the planned harmonisation of ECOWAS tariff structure on the grounds that the cost, especially as it affects job losses, would erode whatever economic gains the Obasanjo government would have achieved in restricting the importation of certain categories of goods into the country.
General Secretary, National Union of Textile Workers, and member of National Executive Council of Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Issa Aremu, disclosed labour's position over the weekend at a workshop on World Trade Agreements jointly organised by the union and Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FEF).
Aremu said the harmonised ECOWAS tariff is tantamount to wholesome liberalisation, which would destroy the economy instantly as the nation has a very little share of the regional market.
"With harmonised ECOWAS tariff structure, all forms of protection for our local industry will be completely removed. Nigeria has little or no control of the regional market. Opening our borders wholly means that we will further lose our domestic market," he said.
Aremu who is also a member of NLC economic think tank, urged the National Assembly not to pass the bill, especially as it relates to the trade tariffs. According to him, most countries in West Africa depend on foreign products shipped from their former colonial masters.
It endorsed, the new tariff structure would turn Nigeria into a dumping ground as most of the goods intended for neighbouring countries will find their way into Nigeria's domestic market. "Most regional countries are dumping grounds, and could easily pass all these good, most substandard, used or fake to Nigeria because of the large market."
He said the spate of collapse of manufacturing industries as a result of increased dumping amid some legal protection points to what the country could possibly face, when all forms of protection are withdrawn.
Aremu disclosed that the rate of protection being earmarked for the manufacturing sector is 16 per cent, instead of 24 per cent, and that "if at 24 per cent industries closed down, at 16 per cent it would be zero."
Citing example with the textile subsector an example, the general secretary said about 40 companies have been shut down while 18 are at present distressed. He therefore urged the Federal Government not to be too desperate to libertise the economy since similar attempts in the past only worsened the situation
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