Trade Policies: Environmental Solutions Nigeria has a climate problem that has been sustained over the years: a June 2024 United Nations Report revealed that climate shocks were triggering displacement and fostering conflict. According to the report, the conflict is fueled by the climate crisis which forces herders to leave their traditional homes in search of better grazing options. This has a negative rebound effect: cattle graze on farmlands in other regions, contributing to food insecurity as well as more tension between farmers and herders in several communities.The climate crisis in Nigeria is like a pronged fork: there are several stabbing edges but the main challenge is environmental pollution. Extreme weather conditions, over cultivation and overgrazing contribute to desertification. Desertified lands in northern Nigeria do not yield any form of agricultural produce and hence result in increased scarcity of food in the nation. In Southern Nigeria, longer periods of rain result in loss of crops and the displacement of people due to flooding. Flooding in Nigeria has resulted in the loss of lives and property, while contributing to the growing problem of food insecurity. Despite all these challenges, Nigeria has not yet found long term solutions to combat the crisis of climate change. As a matter of fact, the 2021 Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index ranked Nigeria as the 53rd most-vulnerable country and the 6th least-ready country in the world to adapt to climate change.
A trade policy is defined as the management of international exchanges of goods and services between national and regional economies. It involves regulating imports and managing exports, including export promotion and export controls. Trade policies help define a government’s stance on how business should be carried out within and outside a country. Trade policies have existed for some time now: The first reasonably systematic body of thought devoted to international trade is called “mercantilism” and emerged in seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe. An outpouring of pamphlets on economic issues, particularly in England and especially related to trade, began during this time. The argument then was that the objective of trade should be to ensure “a favourable balance of trade” which means the value of foreign goods exported must be greater than the value of foreign goods imported. Over the years, trade policies in different countries have evolved based on the economies, transportation policies and several social factors.In my country, Nigeria the story was similar: in 1991, the first world trade review was set up and by 1995, the trade policies had evolved positively. However, implementation was still a challenge. In June of 1998, a World Trade Organisation release showed that the steps taken towards macroeconomic stabilization, trade and investment liberalisation needed to be supported by credible cultural reforms if the Nigerian economy wanted to raise her shoulders high in the midst of her peers. Currently, the country's tariffs are determined by the ECOWAS 2015 – 2019 Common External Tariff (CET). The tariff has five bands: 0% duty on capital goods and essential drugs, 5% duty on raw materials, 10% on intermediate goods, 20% on finished goods and 35% on imports into strategic sector. However, the government has the power to add taxes on consumer goods and ban imports and exports within and outside the country. The aim of Nigeria's trade policies is to increase local production of goods through subsidies, tariffs, quotas and barriers to foreign trade.
Trade policies can significantly improve the climate crisis in Nigeria by encouraging the production of environmentally safe goods. An example of an environmental problem is the heavy presence of plastic products which pose serious concerns to the health and environment of individuals in different regions. International trade may facilitate the development of plastic supply chains, thus increasing the demand for plastics in packaging. This is associated with the problem of determination of the constituents of these plastics and plastic waste generation, especially in developing countries. Stricter international trade policies can help address the problem of environmental pollution. These policies may include reduced tariffs on local environmentally safe alternatives to plastic products, trade facilitation measures for supply chains, technical regulations, standards, labelling schemes and conformity assessment procedures that promote product designs that minimise environmental pollution. In addition, energy conserving technologies such as the use of solar energy, wind turbines and energy conserving equipment can be encouraged through trade policies in Nigeria. This can be done by encouraging domestic production and importation of energy conserving technologies: lowering tariffs on these technologies and incentivizing their usage will reduce environmental pollution significantly in the nation.
Trade policies can help boost agriculture and industrialization, thus solving the problem of food security and minimising conflict in different regions. Agriculture is a vital sector in Nigeria, contributing approximately 23 percent to the country's GDP and employing 70 percent of the labor force. However, nearly 40 percent of the population faces poverty and food insecurity. Climate change exacerbates existing challenges, including low agricultural productivity and inadequate technology adoption. Reduced rainfall, shorter growing seasons, and rising temperatures threaten agricultural output, with some crops potentially facing yield reductions of up to 25 percent by 2050. Trade policies can help farmers solve this challenge by promoting the trade of climate resistant seeds, advanced farming tools and developed irrigation systems. This will encourage more productivity, bigger harvests and provide more employment for young people interested in farming in Nigeria.In Nigeria, industrialization aims to advance to a global level: this can be achieved by speedingly increasing value at each subset of the growing industrial chain. The trade policy reforms that have been adopted by the Nigerian government over the years include the partial abolition of the import licence scheme, granting of special tax incentives and tax holidays to enable local industries to build up adequate funds for expansion and to encourage firms to invest in economically productive ventures. These reforms can help provide a solution to the problems of climate in Nigeria by providing tax incentives for local businesses providing environmental friendly services such as recycling, manufacturing and waste management. The trade policy will help reduce the climate crisis by encouraging sustainable living, reducing environmental pollution and indirectly providing employment for individuals who want to work in environmental friendly organisations.
Trade policies can help set environmental standards and protect the environment from pollution. Trade policies play a key role in addressing the triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Different countries are increasingly relying on trade-related environmental policies, often with new requirements to measure, report and verify the environmental footprint of products at the border. Every country has their rights to ban the entry of products they consider harmful to their citizens or the environment. A good example is the 1997 Shrimp-Turtle case, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Thailand brought a joint complaint against a ban imposed by the United States of America on imports of certain shrimp and shrimp products. The protection of sea turtles was a key driver of the ban. The United States of America’s Endangered Species Act of 1973 listed as endangered or threatened the five species of sea turtles that are in American waters and required that American fishing vessels use fishing gear, known as turtle-excluder devices, in their nets when fishing in areas in case sea turtles were encountered. Under the United States of America’s Public Law, which deals with imports, shrimp harvested with technology that could have a harmful effect on sea turtles may not be imported, unless the harvesting country was certified to have a regulatory programme or that the fishing environment of the harvesting country did not pose a threat to sea turtles. Nigeria can utilise her trade policies by making outright bans on products that are harmful to the environment, increasing tariffs on non sustainable imported goods and providing incentives for the sale of local environmental friendly products. In addition, trade agreements can be used to set environmental standards to discover activities that are harmful to the environment. These activities include deforestation, overgrazing, overfishing, carbon emission, and illegal waste dumping. This will help protect the Nigerian ecosystem and ensure a better environment for her citizens for years to come.
There are numerous ways that trade policies can help solve the problem of climate change: the challenge is long term implementation. However, if different countries come together to tackle the climate crisis, the sustainability of solutions are guaranteed. For example, Nigeria can collaborate with neighbouring countries to tackle cross border climate problems such as desertification, flooding and scarcity of resources. Joint trade policies between countries could lead to shared investments in sustainability projects such as trans boundary water management and afforestation. Environmental standards can be shared between neighbouring countries and the constituents of different plastics determined. Collaborative efforts to ensure the production of alternatives to plastic can be done jointly between countries. Trade policies are not just guidelines that guide business transactions between countries: they are powerful tools that can be used to create a safe environment for us all.

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