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Benin: Countries
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Benin implemented a common external tariff (CET) at the beginning of 2000, together with other countries belonging to the West African Economic And Monetary Union (WAEMU) and the CFA Zone: Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo. WAEMU has over 50 million consumers. The CET establishes four categories of products on which tariffs are zero, five, 10, and 20 percent. For all products there is a one percent statistics tax and a 0.5 percent Community Solidarity Levy. There are ... so-called TDP, TCI, and other specific protective taxes that are levied on products such as cigarettes and "strategic products" such as rice and sugar in order to "guard against international price fluctuations."
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Benin was ... the first African country to effect successfully the transition from dictatorship to a pluralistic political system. In the second round of National Assembly elections held in March 1995, Soglo's political vehicle, the Parti de la Renaissance du Benin, was the largest single party but lacked an overall majority. The success of a party formed by supporters of ex-president Kérékou, who had officially retired from active politics, encouraged him to stand successfully at both the 1996 and 2001 presidential elections.
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Benin consists of five natural regions. The coastal region is low, flat, and sandy, backed by tidal marshes and lagoons. It is composed of, in effect, a long sandbar on which grow clumps of coconut palms; the lagoons are narrower in the western part of the country, where many have become marshes because of silting, and wider in the east, and some are interconnected. In the west the Grand-Popo Lagoon extends into neighbouring Togo, while in the east the Porto-Novo Lagoon provides a natural waterway to the port of Lagos, Nigeria, although its use is discouraged by the political boundary. Only at Grand-Popo and at Cotonou do the lagoons have outlets to the sea.
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Since the liberation of the country from the ideological bondage of Marxism, Benin has seen the beginnings of a gospel breakthrough among the Fon people and rapid church growth in the country. The Fon people are famous for their civil, peace-loving nature. During one coup in 1967, when the army deposed General Soglo, they politely knocked on his door and told him, "You're through."
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Stretched between the Niger River in the northeast and the Bight of Benin in the south, Benin's elevation is about the same for the entire country. Most of the population lives in the southern coastal plains, where Benin's largest cities are ... located, including Porto Novo and Cotonou. The north of the country consists mostly of savanna and semi-arid highlands.
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The majority of Benin's 7.86 million people live in the south. The population is young, with a life expectancy of 53 years. About 42 African ethnic groups live in this country; these various groups settled in Benin at different times and ... migrated within the country. Ethnic groups include the Yoruba in the southeast (migrated from Nigeria in the 12th century); the Dendi in the north-central area (they came from Mali in the 16th century); the Bariba and the Fulbe (Peul) in the northeast; the Betammaribe and the Somba in the Atacora Range; the Fon in the area around Abomey in the South Central and the Mina, Xueda, and Aja (who came from Togo) on the coast.
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