AfCFTA Secretariat, EU and WCO meet to discuss about the state of implementation of the AfCFTA

On 27 January 2022, representatives of the WCO, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and the European Commission had a virtual meeting during which a discussion was held regarding the state of implementation of the AfCFTA.

Two main updates, in particular, emerged during the discussions:

1) As known, Parties member to the AfCFTA have agreed to liberalise 90% of tariff lines over a period of 10 years for LDCs (Least developed countries) and 5 years for non-LDCs, with a further 7% percentage of tariff lines (referred to products indicated as “sensitive”) that will be liberalised over a longer period (within 13 years for LDCs and 10 years for non-LDCs). A limited number of countries called “G-6” (Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe) have been allowed to complete tariff liberalisation in a longer timeframe (15 years). The above deadlines run from 1st January 2021. The remaining tariff lines, corresponding to 3% of their total, will be excluded from liberalisation. The update is that at the moment, 44 tariff offers have been submitted by AfCFTA signatories, not only national States, but also Customs Unions in Africa. A Tariff Negotiations online portal recently established by the African Union will allow the exchange of these tariff offers between AfCFTA signatories. At the moment, however, the portal is still under development and tariff offers are not yet available for consultation.

2) the second news is that the AfCFTA Secretariat intends to create a web-based ‘tariff book’ where all the necessary information on tariff offers and tariff rates applicable to goods traded under the AfCFTA (including applicable rules of origin) will be made available in a user-friendly and easily accessible manner. We talked about this tariff book here.

At the moment, it is not clear if the AfCFTA tariff book will be integrated in the Tariff Negotiations online portal, but a good example on which it should be modelled upon, is the Tripartite Rules of Origin database, a web portal developed by COMESA, EAC and SADC that offers a comparison between the rules of origin applicable under the preferential trading arrangements of the three Regional Economic Communities and those applicable under the Generalized System of Preferences Scheme of the European Union (EU-GSP) and the American Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). This portal also allows traders to verify if their products qualify for preferential treatment under such preferential trade arrangements, as well as to check if the working or processing operations carried out on intermediate goods imported from third countries (non-originating materials) are sufficient to determine the acquisition of origin under one of them. It would be advisable that AfCFTA tariff book has a similar structure, at least for what concerns the description of the AfCFTA rules of origin. However, its final configuration has yet to be decided. To this end, specific Terms of Reference (ToRs) for the development of such a portal will be soon adopted by the AfCFTA Secretariat and a consultant will be selected for its construction.