Thursday, December 19, 2019

Wakanda is our patriot farmers' best trade partner

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) listed ‘Wakanda’, the fictional nation of Marvel superhero movie Black Panther, as a free-trade agreement partner [...] .

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According to the site, Wakanda’s exports to the U.S. included horses, sheep, goats and turkeys.

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Until Wednesday afternoon, the fictional east African country was listed on the USDA’s foreign agricultural service’s tariff tracker. A USDA spokesperson said the fictional nation was added to its system by mistake during tests officials were running.

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Wakanda first appeared in the Fantastic Four comic in 1966, and reappeared when Black Panther was adapted into an Oscar-winning film last year.

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The mistake was first noticed by Francis Tseng, a fellow at the Jain Family Institute on Wednesday morning when researching how trade deals can affect food distribution in countries listed as U.S. trade partners.

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The fictional country was removed from the list after NBC queried the addition.

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“The foreign agricultural service staff who maintain the tariff tracker have been using test files to ensure that the system is running properly,” Mike Illenberg, a USDA spokesperson, told TIME.

  Time
The system may be running properly, but what about the people in charge of it? 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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