Now that we know the relationship between the U.S. and Wakanda, can we get an update on trade talks with Atlantis?
The United States Department of Agriculture accidentally listed the Kingdom of Wakanda — the fictional country that Marvel superhero Black Panther calls home — as a trading partner on its agricultural tariff tracker and it’s kind of hilarious.
A USDA spokesperson said the Kingdom of Wakanda was added to the list by accident during a staff test.
The department’s online tariff tracker hosted a detailed list of goods the two nations apparently traded, including ducks, donkeys and dairy cows.
In the Marvel universe, Wakanda is the fictional East African home country of superhero Black Panther.
Source: BBC
It was first noticed by Francis Tseng who was looking up agricultural tariffs for a fellowship that he was applying for.
Wakanda is listed as a US free trade partner on the USDA website?? pic.twitter.com/xcq1OFTIPh
— Francis Tseng (@frnsys) December 18, 2019
The big question is — since this is a fictional trade agreement, are we getting their fictional miracle metal, Vibranium?
Apparently, the answer to that is “no.”
The extensive list of goods traded between the countries did not include Vibranium.
The Wakanda listing was part of a test file for staff and it should never have been made public.
Mike Illenberg, a USDA spokesperson said in a statement, “Over the past few weeks, the Foreign Agricultural Service staff who maintain the Tariff Tracker have been using test files to ensure that the system is running properly. The Wakanda information should have been removed after testing and has now been taken down.”
Source: ComicBook.com
After the news that Wakanda was listed, Vibranium was trending on Twitter. Once Wakanda was removed, it prompted jokes that we may have just entered a trade war with the fictional kingdom.
The USDA had some fun with it in a tweet.
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
You know some lawmakers are going to be very excited at the prospect of a free trade agreement with Wakanda… Rep. Maxine Waters(D-CA) did the Wakanda salute at Aretha Franklin’s funeral.
Does this mean that she has a “dual loyalty” problem? I’m about 80 percent positive that Rep. Maxine Waters(D-CA) thinks that Wakanda is a real place.
Nobody tell her that it’s not a real place, ok?
