Post by Trade Forum on May 6, 2022 0:10:18 GMT 1
Shock And Surprise As East Africa Economic Community (EAC) Meets Minimum Requirement For Trading Under AfCFTA Before Nigeria And Others
The East African Community (EAC) countries on the 18th of February, 2022 took a huge step forward by adopting the bloc’s tariff offer for category A products amounting to 90.2% to be liberalized in ten years after the start of trading under the AfCFTA had started.
The East African Community (EAC) has confirmed the readiness to conform to the trading requirements of the AfCFTA, after regional Ministers directed Country Experts to convene in mid-March 2022 and finalize the EAC tariff offer.
According to the commission, the tariff offer was standing at 85.86% against the AfCFTA modalities of 90% as at that time.
What are the category A products?
Products under Category A are those products from sectors that include the following: Agro processing, Agriculture, Transportation, or Automotive industry, Pharmaceuticals and Textiles.
This development was announced to the public during an extraordinary meeting of the Regional Ministers of Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
This means that the EAC is now among the countries or regional economic blocks that have met the minimum requirements needed to fulfill the requirement of Category A to start trading on a provisional basis.
It may interest you to know that the EAC is negotiating AfCFTA as a bloc instead of their individual countries negotiating as separate countries.
During the meeting, Kenya’s Permanent Secretary EAC, Kevit Desai, who also chaired the meeting told the New Times Publication that “This is a very exciting and profound new development with respect to EAC’s development agenda.”
He explained that the AfCFTA has so far verified 29 tariff offers to ensure that the modalities are met and that this will increase to 34 when the EAC Partner States are also verified.
“This also means that together, as EAC, we have the potential to raise our standards collectively by investing in technology transfer and industrial capacity now we have the market which spurs investment and this has a huge bearing in terms of employment creation.” He said.
The EAC Partner States tariff offers will now be verified by the AfCFTA Secretariat, which is based in Accra Ghana. Verification of the tariff offers will ensure that AfCFTA member states that meet the minimum requirements will start trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.
Who are the EAC Partner States?
The EAC Partner States are the following:
Democratic Republic of Congo
Republic of Burundi
Republic of Kenya
Republic of Rwanda
Republic of Uganda, and
Republic of Tanzania
Good precedent:
Andrew Mold, the Chief of the Regional Integration and AfCFTA cluster at the United Nations Commission for Africa Office in Kigali, Rwanda, referred to the Arusha meeting as an important development for the region and the implementation of the AfCFTA.
Mold said, “This is a very important development because it means that, once this joint offer has been accepted by the AfCFTA Secretariat, the EAC will now be able to start trading properly under the AfCFTA rules.”
“And it is a good precedent that the EAC has negotiated this as a bloc. Of course, as a Customs Union, to do otherwise would have been problematic. So, it is great news, in the sense that it means that access to the other 29 member states under the AfCFTA terms, with 90% of tariffs removed, depending on whether the countries involved are LDCs or not.” LDCs mean Less Developed Countries.
This is the exact questions Nigerian officers handling the issue of AfCFTA should be concerned about. When other countries get ready and have come to take advantage of the reduction in tariff and we are still dilly dallying, what will happen to the economy of the country?
We have seen the level they have reached in preparing their people to take advantage of the free trade area.
What are our people doing? We have not been hearing from the officials with the responsibility for the AfCFTA in Nigeria.
Stay with us as we bring up to date happenings on AfCFTA to you.
Our company is one of the best companies in importation business in Nigeria today, we train individuals and corporate organizations on how to do Major and Mini Importation business the right way; if you are interested, please contact the admin of this forum now.
The East African Community (EAC) countries on the 18th of February, 2022 took a huge step forward by adopting the bloc’s tariff offer for category A products amounting to 90.2% to be liberalized in ten years after the start of trading under the AfCFTA had started.
The East African Community (EAC) has confirmed the readiness to conform to the trading requirements of the AfCFTA, after regional Ministers directed Country Experts to convene in mid-March 2022 and finalize the EAC tariff offer.
According to the commission, the tariff offer was standing at 85.86% against the AfCFTA modalities of 90% as at that time.
What are the category A products?
Products under Category A are those products from sectors that include the following: Agro processing, Agriculture, Transportation, or Automotive industry, Pharmaceuticals and Textiles.
This development was announced to the public during an extraordinary meeting of the Regional Ministers of Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
This means that the EAC is now among the countries or regional economic blocks that have met the minimum requirements needed to fulfill the requirement of Category A to start trading on a provisional basis.
It may interest you to know that the EAC is negotiating AfCFTA as a bloc instead of their individual countries negotiating as separate countries.
During the meeting, Kenya’s Permanent Secretary EAC, Kevit Desai, who also chaired the meeting told the New Times Publication that “This is a very exciting and profound new development with respect to EAC’s development agenda.”
He explained that the AfCFTA has so far verified 29 tariff offers to ensure that the modalities are met and that this will increase to 34 when the EAC Partner States are also verified.
“This also means that together, as EAC, we have the potential to raise our standards collectively by investing in technology transfer and industrial capacity now we have the market which spurs investment and this has a huge bearing in terms of employment creation.” He said.
The EAC Partner States tariff offers will now be verified by the AfCFTA Secretariat, which is based in Accra Ghana. Verification of the tariff offers will ensure that AfCFTA member states that meet the minimum requirements will start trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.
Who are the EAC Partner States?
The EAC Partner States are the following:
Democratic Republic of Congo
Republic of Burundi
Republic of Kenya
Republic of Rwanda
Republic of Uganda, and
Republic of Tanzania
Good precedent:
Andrew Mold, the Chief of the Regional Integration and AfCFTA cluster at the United Nations Commission for Africa Office in Kigali, Rwanda, referred to the Arusha meeting as an important development for the region and the implementation of the AfCFTA.
Mold said, “This is a very important development because it means that, once this joint offer has been accepted by the AfCFTA Secretariat, the EAC will now be able to start trading properly under the AfCFTA rules.”
“And it is a good precedent that the EAC has negotiated this as a bloc. Of course, as a Customs Union, to do otherwise would have been problematic. So, it is great news, in the sense that it means that access to the other 29 member states under the AfCFTA terms, with 90% of tariffs removed, depending on whether the countries involved are LDCs or not.” LDCs mean Less Developed Countries.
This is the exact questions Nigerian officers handling the issue of AfCFTA should be concerned about. When other countries get ready and have come to take advantage of the reduction in tariff and we are still dilly dallying, what will happen to the economy of the country?
We have seen the level they have reached in preparing their people to take advantage of the free trade area.
What are our people doing? We have not been hearing from the officials with the responsibility for the AfCFTA in Nigeria.
Stay with us as we bring up to date happenings on AfCFTA to you.
Our company is one of the best companies in importation business in Nigeria today, we train individuals and corporate organizations on how to do Major and Mini Importation business the right way; if you are interested, please contact the admin of this forum now.
