Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, Wamkele Mene, indicates that trading under the single continental market will start this year pending the attainment of 86.7percent of negotiations on rules of origin.
He also envisions a strong uptake in the payment and settlement systems, a fully functional AfCFTA Adjustment Fund and the connection of small and medium enterprises to the AfCFTA digital app as key drivers to smooth trading on the market.
“The sense of urgency has to be there for all of us; we need to move very rapidly towards the integration of the African market,” he tells Single African Market in an interview.
Mr. Wamkele says the Secretariat will publish its AfCFTA Tariff Book which clearly indicate tariffs for goods that will be enjoying the benefits of rules of origin and the reduction in tariffs over specific periods early this year.The book will first be presented to the various heads of state for adoption in February before it will be officially published, he says.
“Once the book is published on our website, a trader anywhere in Africa will be able to identify a product and be able to see the applicable rules of origin and degree of value addition that must be made to that commodity to make it an AfCFTA product,” he explains.
The AfCFTA Tariff Book will keep traders updated on applicable tariffs and when those tariffs will be reduced to zero, something the Secretariat has started doing gradually on equal instalments.“It will encourage transparency in tariff regime and ensure certainty and predictability for Customs purposes,” Mr. Mene added.
Commenting on the risk of having goods that are repackaged in Africa entering the single market as AfCFTA-originating goods, the AfCFTA boss shares that there are stringent requirements relating to rules of origin to curtail that practice.
“The risk of transhipment will always be there in trade agreements; the key question is what tools do you have in place to mitigate them. We have rules of origin with a high threshold for value addition for Made in Africa.We want to make sure that there is real value addition in Africa; so, the rules of origin that we have adopted are very stringent and clear. This is the tool we have in place to mitigate the risk of transshipment,” he states.
Wamkele Mene also affirms that his office will work very closely with Customs authorities who will be enforcing the origin of the rules and picking out goods that do not enjoy preferential treatments.
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