UNITED States President Donald Trump has imposed a 15 per cent import tariff on Nigeria and other African countries to advance his sweeping executive order.
The White House announced the modified reciprocal tariff rates on Thursday, July 31.
In the review reciprocal tax order, Trump slammed 15 per cent on Africa and other countries.
The countries include Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Botswana, Cameroon, Chad, Costa Rica, Côte d`Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, and Ghana.
Others are Guyana, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe
The revised global trade blitz comes following that Trump had, in April this year, slammed sweeping tariffs on global trading partners, including imposing 14 per cent on Nigeria.
Trump’s imposed tariffs, which were greeted with retaliations from other countries, were to take effect after 90 days to give time to negotiate the trade deals, with the deadline set to August 1.
Most negotiations, however, failed to produce new agreements, triggering the rollout of increased tariffs under Trump’s revised global scheme.
It can be noted that in Africa, the US President did not strike a single trade deal with any country, despite frantic efforts by several officials on either side of the divide.
As countries tried to find their way around the taxes in that period, Trump imposed travel restrictions on several African nations.
Nigeria was not initially included, but was later added as the policy evolved.
The Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, had said West African nations intended to boost trade with the US but cited the travel restrictions as a barrier.
Trump further imposed various degrees of tariff rates on other countries, as highlighted below.
- 10% – Falkland Islands, United Kingdom, and all other countries not listed in the executive order
- 18% – Nicaragua
- 19% – Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines
- 20% – Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam
- 25% – Brunei, India, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tunisia
- 30% – Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Libya, South Africa
- 35% – Iraq, Serbia
- 39% – Switzerland
- 40% – Laos, Myanmar (Burma)
- 41% – Syria
The reciprocal tariff rates order issued on Thursday read in part, “These modifications shall be effective concerning goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time 7 days after the date of this order, except that goods loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading and in transit on the final mode of transit before 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time 7 days after the date of this order, and entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, before 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on October 5, 2025, shall not be subject to such additional duty and shall instead remain subject to the additional ad valorem duties previously imposed in Executive Order 14257, as amended.”
The ICIR reports that China — which has been locked in a protracted trade war with the US — is still in negotiations with the Trump presidency.
Canada faced a 35 per cent tariff while Mexico was hit with a 25 per cent fentanyl tariff on cars, a 25 per cent tariff on fentanyl, and a 50 per cent tariff on steel, aluminium, and copper — all of which take effect in 90 days.
Also, Brazil is hit with a 10 per cent tariff, while a separate 40 per cent tariff is slapped on the South American nation in the revised tariff.