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SADC certificate of Origin enters into pilot phase

Tuesday, 06 September 2022 06:58

The Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) will officially launch tomorrow (7th September 2022) in Blantyre, a pilot test of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) electronic Certificate of Origin (e-CoO). The e-CoO launch will be preceded by a workshop to be held today at the presence of Member/Partner States from SADC, EAC and COMESA, as well as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, the World Customs Organization (WCO) Secretariat and customs officials and Private Sector representatives. The workshop aims at exploring ways to improve the SADC intra-regional trade through the smooth movement of goods across the borders with the overall objective of aiding the region’s economic development.

6th High-Level Tax Policy Dialogue say Africa should implement domestic resource mobilisation reforms to offset AfCFTA tariff loss

Sunday, 04 September 2022 11:28

Against the backdrop of a loss of revenues deriving from the AfCFTA implementation (due to the waiver of import duties on intra-Africa trade), African countries need to implement Domestic Resource Mobilisation reforms, as well as to intentionally eliminate Non-Tariff Barriers that can cancel the gains of the AfCFTA. This is one of the main conclusions of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF)'s 6TH High-Level Tax Policy Dialogue held from 3 to 4 August 2022.

Tripartite Free Trade Area struggles to enter into force

Friday, 02 September 2022 10:19

The Tripartite Free Trade Area still struggles to enter into force, despite its member countries signed the Tripartite Free Trade Area Agreement (TFTA) seven years ago. The TFTA was launched in 2015 with the aim to combine into an enlarged Free Trade Area (FTA) three Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in Africa, namely: the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern Africa Development Cooperation (SADC). A Tripartite Task Force made up of the Chief Executives of the 3 RECs serves as the Secretariat of the Tripartite Policy organs and is responsible to coordinate the implementation of the Tripartite Free Trade Area work programme. This body rotates annually among the three RECs. On 16th July, 2022 the Chairmanship was taken up by COMESA.

The AfCFTA impact on the growth of fresh produce intra-african trade

Thursday, 01 September 2022 09:53

The recent International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) Southern Africa Conference held from 17 to 18 August in Cape Town was an occasion to discuss the impact of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on intra-african exports of fresh produce. Fresh produce represent one of the category of goods most traded between African States, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total trade in such goods (Ethiopia leading the rank). The remaining share of African production in such items is exported mainly to the EU (27%) and Asia (11%), as shown in the figure below.

COMESA RCTG Carnet: plans for a possible roll out on the North-South corridor

Friday, 26 August 2022 14:55

A national consultative meeting on the implementation of the COMESA Regional Customs Transit Guarantee (also known as RCTG Carnet) was held on Thursday 25 August 2022 in Zambia to take stock of the status of implementation of the RCTG carnet in the COMESA region and discuss issues and concerns raised by Zambia about the operationalisation of this tool in its territory. The RCTG is a customs transit regime whose objective is to reduce the cost of moving goods in transit in the COMESA region so to enhance the trade competitiveness especially of landlocked countries, that suffer from higher transport and transit costs, due to the fact that they depend on neighbouring coastal states to access to seaports that allow them to reach international markets.

News

SADC certificate of Origin enters into pilot phase

6th High-Level Tax Policy Dialogue say Africa should implement domestic resource mobilisation reforms to offset AfCFTA tariff loss

Tripartite Free Trade Area struggles to enter into force

The AfCFTA impact on the growth of fresh produce intra-african trade

COMESA RCTG Carnet: plans for a possible roll out on the North-South corridor

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