--- title: Wakanda Listed by U.S. Agency as Trade Partner description: The U.S. Department of Agriculture had listed Wakanda from 'Black Panther' as a free-trade agreement partner in a bureaucratic mishap. canonical: https://time.com/5752814/wakanda-black-panther-trade-partner/ author: Rachael Bunyan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-12-19T15:56:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T20:13:29.000Z og:title: U.S. Government Lists Fictional Nation From 'Black Panther' as Trade Partner og:description: Until Wednesday afternoon, the fictional country was listed on a tariff tracker og:url: https://time.com/5752814/wakanda-black-panther-trade-partner/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bdda37083e9c97c/698a07c5db298761aa264adc/black-panther-wakanda-trade-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3650 og:image:height: 2053 og:image:alt: Wakanda Listed by U.S. Agency as Trade Partner og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Government Lists Fictional Nation From 'Black Panther' as Trade Partner twitter:description: Until Wednesday afternoon, the fictional country was listed on a tariff tracker twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bdda37083e9c97c/698a07c5db298761aa264adc/black-panther-wakanda-trade-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Government Lists Fictional Nation From Marvel Movie _Black Panther_ as Trade Partner in Bureaucratic Mishap > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8b806304-d46a-4194-b079-7eed4ebb4ca4&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Rachael Bunyan](https://time.com/author/rachael-bunyan/) ## Rachael Bunyan Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:13 PM UTCPublished: Dec 19, 2019 3:56 PM UTC  Michael B. Jordan and Chadwick Boseman in "Black Panther," 2018. Michael B. Jordan and Chadwick Boseman in "Black Panther," 2018. Marvel—Disney/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock by [Rachael Bunyan](https://time.com/author/rachael-bunyan/) ## Rachael Bunyan Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:13 PM UTCPublished: Dec 19, 2019 3:56 PM UTC The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) listed ‘Wakanda’, the fictional nation of Marvel superhero movie [_Black Panther_](https://time.com/black-panther/), as a free-trade agreement partner in a bureaucratic mishap. Until Wednesday afternoon, the [fictional east African country](https://time.com/5168405/atlanta-airport-flights-to-wakanda/) was listed on the USDA’s foreign agricultural service’s tariff tracker. A USDA spokesperson said the [fictional nation](https://time.com/5246675/black-panther-afrofuturism/) was added to its system by mistake during tests officials were running. “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. “The Wakanda information should have been removed after testing and has now been taken down.” According to the [site](https://twitter.com/frnsys/status/1207316829481385984), Wakanda’s exports to the U.S. included horses, sheep, goats and turkeys. Wakanda first appeared in the Fantastic Four comic in 1966, and reappeared when [_Black Panther_](https://time.com/5156771/black-panther-after-credit-scenes-vibranium-and-bucky-barnes-explained/) was adapted into an [Oscar-winning film](https://time.com/5171219/black-panther-women-true-history/) last year. 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. > [](https://twitter.com/frnsys/status/1207316477373829120) “I definitely did a double take,” Tseng told [NBC](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/usda-tariff-tracker-removes-wakanda-fictional-home-black-panther-free-n1104231). “I googled Wakanda to make sure it was actually fiction, and I wasn’t misremembering. I mean, I couldn’t believe it.” The fictional country was removed from the list after NBC queried the addition. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5752814/wakanda-black-panther-trade-partner/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5752814/wakanda-black-panther-trade-partner/"},"headline":"U.S. Government Lists Fictional Nation From Marvel Movie Black Panther as Trade Partner in Bureaucratic Mishap","datePublished":"2019-12-19T15:56:01.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T20:13:29.000Z","description":"Until Wednesday afternoon, the fictional country was listed on a tariff tracker","url":"https://time.com/5752814/wakanda-black-panther-trade-partner/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Marvel"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bdda37083e9c97c/698a07c5db298761aa264adc/black-panther-wakanda-trade-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachael Bunyan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rachael-bunyan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bdda37083e9c97c/698a07c5db298761aa264adc/black-panther-wakanda-trade-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Wakanda Listed by U.S. Agency as Trade Partner","caption":"\"Black Panther\" Film - 2018","creditText":"Marvel—Disney/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5752814/wakanda-black-panther-trade-partner/","name":"U.S. Government Lists Fictional Nation From Marvel Movie Black Panther as Trade Partner in Bureaucratic Mishap"}}]}] ```