The East African Community (EAC) has recently embarked on a new project to make digital transformation of Customs a reality. The Community is preparing to make its Common External Tariff available through a web-based electronic platform. The project is supported by the WCO in the context of the EU-WCO Programme for the Harmonized System in Africa (HS-Africa Programme), funded by the European Union.
While the new electronic tariff platform is going through the testing phase, a series of workshops was conducted for the EAC Partner States during the period from 26 October to 3 November 2020, in the form of virtual training sessions. The workshops were organized jointly by the EAC Secretariat and the HS-Africa Programme. They brought together more than 90 Customs officers from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
The workshops highlighted the importance of the platform in facilitating the migration of the tariff to new versions of the HS. Developers of the electronic platform offered detailed explanations of its technical specifications, search functionalities and update procedures. Presenters stressed the relevance of the platform to the implementation of international standards on publishing information, in particular the WTO TFA and the AfCFTA.
The workshops marked an important step along the path leading to upcoming launch of the new tariff platform. The EAC Secretariat representatives expressed their firm commitment to continuing the ongoing cooperation with the WCO, in the framework of the HS-Africa Programme, to successfully implement the tariff platform and other initiatives.
For more details, please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.