Lagos — The European Commission has declared that Nigeria accounts for "a very small" share of world's trade.

"Nigeria is a large regional player, but its share of world trade is very small, accounting for about 0.7 per cent of global exports and 0.4 per cent of global imports," the Commission stated yesterday in Abuja.

According to the New Agency of Nigeria, it noted that Nigeria's share of world trade might have received a boost from recent oil prices, theoverall trend showed an ever decreasing share ofworld trade.

The Commission added that though Nigeria accounted for about 60 per cent of West Africa's external trade, it's trade was limited both in terms ofproducts and destination markets.

"Fossil fuel products are by far the dominant export, making up about 94 per cent of exports toward the EU in 2006, followed by food stuffs and animal products at about three per cent,"it stated.

It explained further that the EU absorbed about 22 per cent of all Nigeria's exports andaccounts for 25 per cent of its trade there by making Nigeria second only to the U.S.

"Like most West African states, only a small fraction of Nigeria's trade is with itsregional neighbours," it added. EU expressed the belief that Nigeria could benefit greatly from an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which provided the time and space to learn and grow before having to deal with the full weight of global competition. It observed that being part of globalised economy was widely regarded as essential to economic growth.

"The fact that Nigeria's share of the global trade is reducing, is therefore a cause for great concern. Europe is and will remain an important development and business partner for Nigeria.

"We believe that the EPA could be an essential component of this partnership," it added. "The EPA's regional market provides an opportunity for countries like Nigeria to develop and strengthen their commercial operations before accessing the global market," it stated.

It further stated that the EU was ready to support the negotiation and implementation of the EPA in the West African sub-region.It said trade between Nigeria and the EU had been governed by the Cotonou Agreement since 2002.

"The current regime grants Nigeria unilateral preferences such as better conditions for its trade with Europe than the EU gets in return," it stated.

It admitted that the arrangement did not "formally" comply with the World Trade Organisation's rules for international trade.