'Facilitation regimes' and maritime trade in Nigeria: A critical appraisal of Nigeria's Implementation of the IMO FAL and the WTO TFA
The interdependency between international trade and maritime transport cannot be overstated. With over 80 per cent of global trade by volume carried out by maritime transport, the procedures and processes in and around the maritime domain can either aid or act as barriers to global trade. These procedures and processes, collectively referred to in this study as 'facilitation rules', are the subject of national, regional, continental and multilateral frameworks and regulations. In this study, Nigeria’s engagement with international trade facilitation regimes, specifically the Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic (FAL) and the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), was critically examined. This focus is because both are central to the global facilitation regime; the nexus between the FAL and TFA has been underexplored, while previous studies seem not to have considered the impact of the compartmentalisation of the trade facilitation regimes on the ability of developing countries that are signatories to these treaties to effectively utilise them to their benefit. Using Nigeria as a case study, the study critically evaluates Nigeria's engagement with the FAL and the TFA to ascertain the impact of both international treaties on Nigeria's efforts to achieve an effective facilitation regime in its maritime trade. By critically exploring Nigeria's engagement with the specified facilitation regimes, the study sheds light on the impact of international standards on Nigeria's trade facilitation regime, specifically and the maritime trade sector more generally. To facilitate the foregoing, the study was underpinned by a research problem that highlights the compartmentalisation of the frameworks created by both the FAL and TFA in both literature and practice, despite their interconnected objectives of reducing trade costs and streamlining cross-border procedures. The key finding of the study is that the benefits derivable by Nigeria from the utilisation of the facilitation regimes subsumed in the FAL and TFA are limited by a plethora of regulatory and governance issues. This ranges from non-compliance with the strictures of Nigeria’s dualist legal system to multiple institutional inefficiencies like the overlapping mandates of ministries, departments and agencies of the Nigerian government, corruption, prebendalism, and limited technical capacity. Furthermore, the study highlighted that although Nigeria has recorded improvement in trade volumes and balance in recent years, the inefficiencies associated with the operationalisation of the facilitation frameworks continue to inflict significant costs on Nigeria’s trade fortunes and its integration into the global supply chain. Premised on the foregoing, it was concluded that the fragmented engagement with facilitation regimes in Nigeria is indicative of deeper structural and governance challenges. Flowing from the foregoing, this thesis proposes a contextualised understanding of the mechanics of the negotiation, domestication, and operationalisation of multilateral trade facilitation instruments by developing countries, such as Nigeria. More specifically, the study recommends harmonising facilitation regimes, coordinating among stakeholders, and enhancing infrastructural and technological investments to address these gaps.
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