The African Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the AfCFTA Secretariat convened a consultation to exchange on challenges and opportunities towards efficient and co-ordinated implementation of the Harmonized System (HS) and rules of origin in Africa. The consultation took place on 3 October 2023 in Plaigne Magnien, Mauritius, at the margins of the EU-WCO Programmes for Harmonized System and Rules of Origin in Africa annual steering committee meetings.
The deliberations on the HS looked at the lessons learnt from the migration to the 2017 and 2022 version of the HS, the RECs’ role in streamlining the application of new versions, and discussed opportunities and prospects for a successful implementation of the HS 2028 across the continent. The experts also exchanged on the importance of advance rulings and targeted competency development, as well as the urgency to update the AfCFTA tariff concessions from the HS2017 to the 2022 version of the HS.
The discussions around origin tackled the overlapping rules of origin in Africa, the processes for certification and verification of origin, and the need to streamline the RoO for better regional integration and seamless trade facilitation. The experts also exchanged and presented recommendations regarding e-certificate and self-certification of origin, as well as the necessity to build competencies and solid pool of experts in Africa.
The consultation was concluded with a set of recommendations that shall be considered under the EU-WCO Programmes for Harmonized System and Rules of Origin, funded by the European Union.
For more details, please contact hs@wcoomd.org.