Nigeria’s export to the United States, under a duty-free policy, dropped in the first nine months of 2020, recording $351.73 million from January to September 2020.
The latest African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) policy trade statistics revealed that exports to the US under the policy fell by 86.97 per cent from $2,699.13m in the first nine months of 2019 to $351.73 million in the corresponding period in 2020.
The AGOA (a United States’ trade policy, enacted in 2000), is a legislation that facilitates a duty-free trade between exporters from sub-Saharan Africa and the United States.
Annual trade data showed the largest contribution towards AGOA-eligible trade commodities were usually oil exports mainly from Angola and Nigeria, and to a lesser extent, Chad and the Republic of Congo.
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Crude Oil
Following the COVID-19 induced crash in oil prices earlier this year and declining demand, Nigeria has been struggling to sell its crude oil cargoes and according to the statistics, oil and gas products valued at $3.12 billion were exported to the US under the policy in 2019.
Prior to the lockdowns and collapse in crude oil demand caused by coronavirus crisis, the production of US shale oil had led to a significant reduction in the exportation of Nigerian crude oil.
The United States’ import of Nigeria crude oil plunged by 63.03 per cent in the first quarter of this year, compared to the last quarter of 2019.
Data from the US Energy Information Administration showed that the country imported 5.53 million barrels of crude oil from Nigeria in Q1 2020, down from 15.07 million barrels in Q4 2019.
