WCO will contribute to AfCFTA implementation through support to African Customs

On 15 February 2022, the Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat met at WCO Headquarters to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at strengthening the organisational capacity, transparency and effectiveness of African Customs administrations in a sustainable manner through cooperation between both Organizations.

The MoU will be valid for 3 years and the main areas where the WCO will provide support include the implementation of key WCO international standards, tools and best practices, as well as the provision of capacity building, organizational development and training for the implementation of AfCFTA Annexes, in particular those on Rules of Origin, customs cooperation and mutual administrative assistance, trade facilitation, Non-Tariff Barriers and Transit.

The MoU with the WCO follows a similar MoU signed on 30 March 2021 between the AfCFTA Secretariat and the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) which also included, among the areas of support, the strengthening of the capacities of African national customs authorities.

The text of the WCO-AfCFTA Secretariat MoU is available here.