Trump’s trade policy is a real marvel.
This week, it was discovered that the fictional East African nation of Wakanda was added and then later removed from the USDA website. Wakanda is the home of Marvel superhero Black Panther.
Wakanda is listed as a US free trade partner on the USDA website?? pic.twitter.com/xcq1OFTIPh
— Francis Tseng (@frnsys) December 18, 2019
The imaginary country had “hundreds of data inputs” and there were drop-down menus that listed its “different commodity groups.”
“Yellow potatoes had to maintain a ‘0.5 cent/kg’ base rate when shipped in from the fictional East African nation, while frozen Chinese water chestnuts were tariff free if the U.S. decided to import them from Wakanda. Cows were also tariff free.”
The Trump administration shrugged off the mistake saying Wakanda’s trade information was part of a “test file.” According to a USDA spokesperson, “The Wakanda information should have been removed after testing and has now been taken down.”
The Wakanda snafu didn’t go unnoticed by Twitter who found the incident quite amusing.
Wakandan wine, cheese and vibranium knee replacements just got a lot more expensive. https://t.co/6KvslaSFeO
— Colin McEnroe (@colinmcenroe) December 19, 2019
So do we, or do we not have free trade with Wakanda? Also where are things at on negotiations with Agrabah? https://t.co/g18e8WtXWF
— Christopher Heath (@CHeathWFTV) December 18, 2019
Please, oh please, some reporter needs to ask trump WHY Wakanda was removed as a trade partner. https://t.co/3Z4ubsDVFk
— Maggie Jordan (@MaggieJordanACN) December 19, 2019
Even the Department of Agriculture joined in on the fun…
While we removed the Kingdom of Wakanda from our list of US free trade partners, our relationship will always be strong #WakandaForever pic.twitter.com/wiRSCIdfGh
— Dept. of Agriculture (@USDA) December 19, 2019
Hopefully, King T’Challa won’t take offense to no longer being free trade partners…