This archive report was first published on 20 December 2019.
On December 20, 2019, a Twitter user, Francis Tseng, brought to light a surprising mistake made by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The department had included Wakanda, a fictional African country, in its list of countries with free-trade agreements with the US.
Tseng, a software engineer, was searching for data on US agricultural tariffs for a fellowship when he stumbled upon the error. He noted that Wakanda was listed as a US free-trade partner on the USDA website, which seemed highly unlikely.
"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.
Further investigation revealed that the USDA had included Wakanda in a test, which was meant to be a confidential exercise. The department later amended the free-trade list to exclude Wakanda, acknowledging that the inclusion was a mistake.
