This archive report was first published on 19 December 2019.
On Thursday, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) corrected an error on its online list of nations with free trade agreements with the US, removing the fictional African nation of Wakanda.
The inclusion of Wakanda, home to the Marvel superhero Black Panther, was a mistake made during a test by USDA officials, according to a spokesman for the agency.
Francis Tseng, a New York-based software engineer, first noticed the listing for Wakanda on the US tariff list and brought it to the attention of the public on Twitter.
‘I was very confused at first and thought I misremembered the country from the movie and got it confused with something else,’ Tseng told Reuters.
Before the list was corrected, Tseng managed to download an Excel sheet listing tariff codes for various categories of goods traded between Wakanda and the US, including live animals, dairy goods, tobacco, and alcohol.
After the list was corrected, Tseng tweeted: ‘Well, the USDA took Wakanda off the list. Guess we’re in a trade war with them too.’
Wakanda is portrayed in comic books and the 2018 blockbuster as an isolated African nation with the most powerful technology on the planet.
