United States notifies import surcharges, ready for WTO consultations

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Washington invokes emergency trade law to justify a levy on all imports, as Nigeria faces a hollowed-out AGOA shield and declining crude offtake

What’s Happening

The United States has formally notified the World Trade Organization of a broad import surcharge imposed in February 2026 and has requested that consultations to examine the measure begin next month. The WTO Committee on Balance-of-Payments Restrictions took up the notification at a meeting on May 5.

The surcharge applies to imports of all goods from all trading partners. Though notified to the WTO at 10% ad valorem, the rate was raised to 15% on Feb. 22, 2026 — two days before it took effect on Feb. 24. It is set to expire on July 24 unless extended by an act of Congress.

The Numbers

The operative surcharge rate is 15%, applied above existing bound tariff rates in the U.S. Schedule of Concessions. The measure covers the period Feb. 24 to July 24, 2026 — 150 days. It was authorised on Feb. 20 by the U.S. President under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. U.S. goods imports from Nigeria totalled $5.0 billion in 2025, down 13% year-on-year, while U.S. goods exports to Nigeria reached $6.8 billion — flipping the bilateral balance to a U.S. surplus of $1.8 billion. Nigeria was the top African crude oil exporter to the U.S. between January and August 2025, accounting for more than half of the continent’s total crude shipments to American refiners.

What’s Being Said

The United States told the committee it is prepared to enter consultations and requested that they take place in June, in line with WTO rules.

WTO members acknowledged that GATT 1994 makes provision for balance-of-payments measures and welcomed Washington’s transparency. They also raised concerns about the necessity of the surcharge and its impact on global trade, noted the role of the IMF in assessing BOP justifications, and expressed readiness to engage in the forthcoming consultations.

Context

The Section 122 measure is the White House’s direct response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Feb. 20, 2026, which struck down the larger IEEPA-based reciprocal tariffs the Trump administration had imposed on most trading partners since April 2025. Within hours of the ruling, the White House invoked Section 122 — an emergency provision that caps surcharges at 15% for up to 150 days. Under WTO rules, consultations with the BOP Committee must take place within four months of the measure’s adoption; the four-month deadline falls in mid-June, aligning precisely with the U.S. request.

At the May 5 session, members also elected Ambassador R.G.S.P.K. Wijesekara of Sri Lanka as the committee’s new chair, succeeding Ambassador Dr. José Roberto Sánchez-Fung of the Dominican Republic.

Why It Matters for Nigeria

Nigeria enters this dispute already on the back foot. U.S. goods imports from Nigeria fell 13% in 2025, and the bilateral trade balance has shifted against Abuja. Crude oil — the backbone of Nigeria’s U.S. export earnings — faces a direct cost increase for American refiners, which risks suppressing order volumes at a time when domestic crude allocation between the Dangote Refinery and export markets is already in flux.

The AGOA shield Nigeria might have relied on has been largely neutralised. Congress renewed AGOA through December 2026, but the Section 122 surcharge applies on top of AGOA preferences. Since AGOA was designed to waive only the standard MFN tariff — which averaged just 3.3% — it was never built to absorb a 15-percentage-point surcharge. Nigeria’s preferential access to the U.S. market is, for practical purposes, suspended.

The growing non-oil export base also takes a hit. Nigerian fertilizer exports surged nearly fourfold year-on-year in Q1 2025, with the U.S. among emerging buyers; higher landed costs now threaten to choke that trajectory before it matures.

The offset worth watching is China. Beijing’s new zero-tariff policy for 53 African countries, effective May 1, 2026 — including Nigeria — opens a duty-free channel for processed goods that previously attracted Chinese tariffs of up to 25%. As U.S. access deteriorates, that pivot becomes less of an option and more of a necessity.

What to Watch

June’s WTO consultations are the immediate flashpoint. If members reject the U.S. BOP justification, formal dispute proceedings are on the table. The more consequential risk is Congressional action to extend the surcharge beyond July 24 — that would convert a temporary emergency measure into a structural feature of the U.S. import regime, with lasting implications for Nigeria’s export strategy and the CBN’s reserve position.

Bottom Line

The U.S. has placed a 150-day import surcharge — notified to the WTO at 10% but operating at 15% — on the multilateral agenda, framing it as a balance-of-payments emergency. For Nigeria, the measure compounds an already deteriorating bilateral trade position, effectively nullifies AGOA’s preferential access, and raises the cost of exporting crude oil and emerging non-oil products to the American market. The June consultations will test whether WTO rules retain the force to constrain unilateral U.S. trade actions — or merely provide a forum to document them.

One editorial note: the 10% vs. 15% rate discrepancy is worth a brief line of clarification in the article — the WTO notification cites the original proclamation rate, but readers should know the surcharge in force is 15%.