AFRICA: AfCFTA Member States Reach Agreement on Rules of Origin

The Eighth Meeting of The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Council of Ministers Responsible for Trade on 28 January 2022, agreed the rules of origin for the bloc, removing a major hurdle to reduced tariffs roll-out under the trade agreement. 

Although trading under AfCFTA terms started officially on 1 January 2021, many problems over rules of origin remained unresolved, making it difficult to identify the source nation of many products, and consequently the preferential tariff applicable. The agreed rules of origin have now resolved this issue for 87.7% of the goods covered by AfCFTA, comprising about 3,800 tariff lines. At the meeting, AfCFTA representatives also agreed to allow the trading of a further 850 products under the new rules of origin, pending approval by African Union heads of state. Member countries can now gazette the legal instruments needed at the national level to introduce procedures enabling customs departments to operate under the new tariffs.