Apparently, the United States was a trade partner with … a fictional country? Weirder things have happened this year, I guess.
The partnership was discovered by software engineer Francis Tseng, who found the anomaly on the USDA website.
Wakanda is listed as a US free trade partner on the USDA website?? pic.twitter.com/xcq1OFTIPh
— Francis Tseng (@frnsys) December 18, 2019
That wasn’t all; you could even see the goods we were apparently trading with Wakanda! The list included a lot of livestock, but … not Vibranium? I mean, the U.S. in no circumstances should be using Vibranium for anything besides repairing Cap’s Shield, so that’s fine, but it’s still a glaring omission.
??? pic.twitter.com/YwRf7aQj3h
— Francis Tseng (@frnsys) December 18, 2019
Following the Twitter frenzy over this discovery, the USDA has removed Wakanda from the website’s list of trade partners, so, as Tseng noted, we’re now apparently in a trade war with the home country of Black Panther, too, which honestly seems on-brand for us at this point.
Obviously, this was a programming error for the USDA, which has clarified that the mistake was part of a test. That’s actually kind of fun, and of course, the tweets celebratory tweets were the real winners.
it’s a good day for Black people. That motherfucker got impeached and turns out, Wakanda is real https://t.co/kNmObP0qCD
— 🎅🏿Imani Gandy Cane🎅🏿 (@AngryBlackLady) December 19, 2019
Not that I don’t want to see excellent trade relations between America and Wakanda, but this definitely is an indication that all of the experts have indeed been purged… https://t.co/AW74VGkRqQ
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 18, 2019
As someone whose twitter profile lists #Wakanda as one of my countries of expertise, I strongly support the establishment of a free trade agreement with such a remarkable nation. #USAfricaPolicy https://t.co/fZkjZv8LJB
— Lesley Anne Warner (@Lesley_Warner) December 18, 2019
Alas, it seems our trade days with Wakanda are truly over. It might be that they’re mad at us for revealing their existence to the world, or that they just … took at look at America. No word on how things are with Sokovia, but I’m pretty sure we’re cool with Latveria? If I recall right, Doctor Doom is now the Surgeon General, so we’ve got to be solid there.
Now, if only we could get Stark industries back onto a defense contract …
(via: HuffPost, image: Disney/Marvel)
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