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US Government Lists Black Panther's Kingdom Of Wakanda As Trade Partner

US Government Lists Black Panther's Kingdom Of Wakanda As Trade Partner

America apparently trades with Wakanda

Amelia Ward

Amelia Ward

The US government has listed the Kingdom of Wakanda as a trade partner. No big deal, you might think - unless you're a fan of Marvel (well... or geography in general, to be fair), in which case you'll know it's actually a fictional country.

Yes, Wakanda is home to Black Panther, of Marvel Cinematic Universe fame.

In an unlikely turn of events, it was added to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s free-trade partner list, with the organisation even including a detailed description of the goods that the nations supposedly trade.

Some of the items traded between the US and Wakanda (apparently).
Twitter/@frnsys

According to the online tariff tracker, the two countries trade ducks, donkeys and dairy cows. Which is more than we expected, if we're honest, isn't it?

A spokesperson for the USDA said Wakanda was added to the list by accident during a staff test.

In news that's perhaps less surprising, the country was eventually removed from the list after the US media questioned it, starting jokes that the two countries had started a trade war.

Marvel

The USDA posted on Twitter: "While we removed the Kingdom of Wakanda from our list of US free trade partners, our relationship will always be strong.

Being good sports (and evidently MCU fans), the folks behind the department's Twitter account also referenced the country's maxim with the hashtag '#WakandaForever'.

The unlikely partnership was first spotted by New York based software engineer Francis Tseng, who was researching while applying for a fellowship.

Speaking to Reuters, Tseng said: "I was very confused at first and thought I mis-remembered the country from the movie and got it confused with something else."

But he did manage to download an Excel sheet that showed all the categories of goods traded between Wakanda and the US, which included animals, dairy, tobacco and alcohol

After the government department had corrected the mistake, Tseng tweeted: "Well, the USDA took Wakanda off the list. Guess we're in a trade war with them too."

Black Panther, released in 2018, starred Chadwick Boseman and was one of the highest-grossing film of last year. It even became the first Marvel movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Golden Globe, as well as being nominated for Best Original Score and Original Song.

Wakanda first made its appearance in the Fantastic Four comics in 1966.

Featured Image Credit: Marvel

Topics: TV and Film, Funny, US News, Weird