Scope of the African Continental Free Trade Area – [Part A (4 of 9)] – The AfCFTA Protocol on Trade in Goods, associated Annexes and Appendices [Annexes 3 – 4 of 9]
Annex 3 – Customs Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance
One of the specific objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement is for State Parties to cooperate on customs matters and the implementation of trade facilitation measures (Article 4 of the Agreement). This Annex delves into the very heart of this objective.
The objective of Annex 3 is to provide a framework that State Parties can use to define and take appropriate measures and arrangements that has to do with custom cooperation and mutual administrative assistance between them. Annex 3 allows State Parties to afford cooperation in areas of customs administration aimed at improving the regulation of trade flows while respecting and enforcing applicable laws within State Parties.
Appendices – Customs Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance
No Appendices relating to this Annex have been published to date. However, in terms of Article 8.3 of the Agreement, provision has been made for such additional instruments in future.
Annex 4 – Trade Facilitation
Moving goods between State Parties can be a complex process more so when one takes into consideration that each and every State Party has their own set of rules, regulations, processes and procedures regarding imported, exported and transit goods. Furthermore, some of these rules, regulations, processes and procedures may not necessarily be in alignment or even worse may contradict each other and thereby creating a trade experience that is anything but harmonious.
Ultimately, the Trade Facilitation Annex helps to simplify and harmonise the end to end trade experience for e.g. a business person who needs to move their consignment from State Party A to State Party C via State Party B.
The objective of the Trade facilitation Annex is to define a set of appropriate measures and arrangements that State Parties are required to put in place so as to collectively create a simple (more likely less complex) and harmonious Intra-African Free Trade experience. These appropriate measures and arrangements are a series of requirements that are expected of each State Party and they vary. Examples of these measures and arrangement are;
- people related (e.g. Article 28 of the Annex requires each State Party to establish and/or maintain a National Committee on Trade Facilitation or designate an existing mechanism to facilitate both domestic coordination and implementation of the provisions of this Annex).
- process related (e.g. Article 7 of the Annex requires all State Parties to adopt and maintain procedures that allow for the submission of import documentation and other required documentation at entry ports in such a manner that this process expedites the release of goods upon arrival).
- information related (e.g. Article 4 of the Annex requires each State Party to publish on the Internet amongst others a description of procedures and practical steps needed for importation, exportation and transit at all entry ports).
- systems related (e.g. Article 10 of the Annex requires each State Party to have a risk management system that can allow for the risk based approach to processing of consignments at ports of entry. This way the Customs control function will invest more resources on high-risk consignments while also avoiding unnecessary delay to the release of low-risk consignments) etc.
Appendices – Trade Facilitation
No Appendices relating to this Annex have been published to date. However, in terms of Article 8.3 of the Agreement, provision has been made for such additional instruments in future.
References (Ref.)
- Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area – African Union
- Protocol on Trade in Goods
- http://www.itac.org.za/pages/services/trade-remedies
Useful Links (UL)
- Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area – African Union
- Protocol on Trade in Goods
- https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/entrepreneur-toolkit/templates-business-guides/glossary/technical-barriers-to-trade
- http://ow.ly/KKQc30rLA3q