l i b e ra l i s a t i o n a n d i n t ra - r e c t ra d e
TRANSCRIPT
AfCFTA negotiations: the current state of RECliberalisation and intra-REC trade
Article 19(2) of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement states that ‘other RECs, regional trade arrangements andcustoms unions which have attained among themselves higher levels of regional integration than under this Agreement shall maintain suchhigher levels among themselves’. Currently there are numerous existing regional economic communities (RECs) and bilateral tradeagreements in place and ongoing liberalisation efforts. In accordance with Article 19(2) one of the determinants of whether an existingtrade arrangement will remain is the level of integration which has been achieved among the parties of the trade arrangement.
SACU, the EAC and CEMAC are customs unions. According toavailable data intra-REC tariffs are fully liberalised. However, on allimports of certain UHT milk into Botswana additional duties as infantindustry protection are currently applicable. Article 26 of the 2002SACU Agreement allows Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia tolevy additional duties for a period of eight years to protect a domesticinfant industry . These additional duties are levied on the basis ofnon-discrimination on imports originating from both inside andoutside the common customs area. Both Namibia and Botswana haveutilised this provision to levy duties on certain imports and currentlya duty of 40 percent is levied on 4 tariff lines pertaining to UHT milk(HS04011007, 04012007, 04014007 and 04015007).
SACU, EAC and CEMAC
EAC
CEMACSACU
ECOWASThe applicable tariff for the ECOWAS countries asavailable shows that 13 of the 15 countries apply theECOWAS CET while the tariffs applied by Liberia andCape Verde is different from the ECOWAS CET.The ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) is theinstrument used for the establishment of the ECOWASFTA. According to the ETLS agriculture products,industrial products and handmade crafts can be tradedduty-free among the ECOWAS countries if certainrequirements are met.Enterprises in ECOWAS must apply to be approved and beissued verification of origin certificates for the productthey which to trade under the ETLS.Thus far, 1519 products (at HS10) have been approved forduty-free intra-ECOWAS trade – 25 per cent of theECOWAS CET tariff lines of 6129.
SADC
Of the 17 GAFTA countries six are Africancountries of which all but Libya have publishedpreferential tariffs. The majority of intra-GAFTAtariffs have been liberalised with some countrieshaving fully liberalised tariff lines for intra-GAFTAimports. On average, among the five Africancountries which are members of GAFTA intra-GAFTA tariff liberalisation is 93 per cent. Thecountries with the least number of liberalisedtariff lines are Algeria (77% of tariff lines) andTunisia (88% of 2016 tariff lines).
GAFTA
COMESA17 of the COMESA REC countries are currently membersof the COMESA FTA. The DRC and Somalia have not yetjoined the FTA and Ethiopia and Eritrea are in the processof acceding. Eritrea and Ethiopia have already started toliberalise tariffs for intra-COMESA imports – tariffs leviedby Eritrea and Ethiopia on intra-COMESA imports arerespectively 80 per cent and 20 per cent of the generaltariff rates. Most of the COMESA FTA countriesreciprocate these tariff preferences for imports fromthese two countries.Across 18 COMESA REC countries tariff liberalisation is at59 per cent (Somalia, Libya and Djibouti are excluded).The tariff lines across 13 of the COMESA FTA countries(Tunisia, Djibouti, Eswatini and Libya excluded) are fullylilberalised.
13 of the 16 SADC REC members are alsomembers of the SADC FTA; Angola hasrecently submitted an offer to accede to theFTA and the DRC and Comoros are yet tojoin the FTA.Tariff liberalisation across the whole ofSADC (FTA and non-FTA countries) is 73percent mainly due to the MFN rates leviedon/by countries which are not members ofthe SADC FTA.97 per cent of intra-SADC FTA tariff lineshave been fully liberalised.
RECs with FTAs/Customs Unions in place
AMU
IGADDjiboutiKenyaSudanUganda
COMESA FTA EAC
KenyaSouth SudanUganda
Preferential tariffs are 10% ofgeneral tariffs
Preferential tariffs are 80% ofgeneral tariffs
Ethiopia
Eritrea
Trade not subject to any tariff liberalisation:
All trade with Somalia (not yet part of theCOMESA FTA)
Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia & Sudan trade withSouth Sudan
ECCASCEMAC
Cameroon, CAR, Chad,Congo, Equatorial Guinea
& Gabon
EAC/COMESAFTA
Burundi &Rwanda
Trade not subject to anytariff liberalisation:
All trade withAngola, DRC & SãoTomé and Príncipe
Trade betweenBurundi & CEMAC
and Rwanda &CEMAC
Angola, DRC & São Tomé and Príncipe
CENSADECOWAS = Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gambia,
Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal,Sierra Leone & Togo
Morocco
CAR&
CHAD
Comoros, Egypt & Sudan = 100%duty-free for COMESA FTA
countries
Tunisia
Algeria
Libya
Mauritania
Morocco
Tunisia
GAFTA AGADIR
Countries with an FTA with Morocco
COMESA FTA
Trade not subject to preferences: most trade with Mauritania
RECs with no trade agreements in place among the members of the RECsThere is no tariff liberalisation under the RECs of AMU, CENSAD, ECCAS and IGAD. However, trade among themembers of these RECs is already subject to tariff liberalisations due to the overlapping membership with other RECswhich do have FTAs or/and customs unions in place.
All the AMU countries, except Mauritaniaare members of GAFTA. Most of the tradewith Mauritania is not subject to any tariffliberalisation. The only exception isMauritania-Morocco trade under an FTAwith a third of Mauritania's tariff lines forgoods imported from Morocco liberalisedand 18 per cent of Morocco's tariff linesfor goods imported from Mauritania. Dueto the lack of tariff liberalisation for goodsfrom Mauritania intra-AMU tariffliberalisation is 63 per cent of all tarifflines applicable to trade among the AMUcountries.
CENSAD includes most of the ECOWAScountries as well as countries which aremembers of the COMESA FTA, CEMAC andGAFTA. The percentage of tariff liberalisationdepends on whether the ECOWAS ETLS isapplicable or not. If the ETLS is not applicablethen intra-CENSAD tariff liberalisation is 56per cent, if it is applicable the liberalisation is at57 per cent.
All the CEMAC countries are included in ECCAS, which alsoincludes Burundi and Rwanda which are members of both theCOMESA FTA and the EAC. Accordingly, intra-CEMAC, intra-EAC and intra-COMESA FTA trade is duty-free (tariff lines fullyliberalised). The countries which are not part of these FTAs andcustoms union have low percentages of tariff liberalisation oftheir general and MFN applied tariffs. The same holds true forthe CEMAC CET and EAC CET. For instance, 1 per cent of theCEMAC CET, 2 per cent of the MFN applied of São Tomé andPríncipe and 5 per cent of the MFN applied tariff of the DRC arefully liberalised. Of the tariff lines applicable to intra-ECCAStrade only 47 per cent is potentially fully liberalised.
Most IGAD countries are members of the COMESA FTA and/orthe EAC. Intra-IGAD tariff liberalisation depends on the generaland MFN applied tariffs levied by the non-COMESA FTA countriesand those levied by the COMESA FTA/EAC countries on importsfrom these non-COMESA FTA countries. Due to limited tariffliberalisation of the general tariffs of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudanand the EAC CET intra-IGAD tariff liberalisation is 45 per cent.
27% duty-free for Mauritania, 96%for Algeria, 88% for Libya and 98%
for Morocco
100% duty-free for Algeria & Libya; 90% forTunisia and 18% for Mauritania
NO tariff data available
2% duty-free for Mauritania and 77% duty-free forthe rest of AMU
33% duty-free for Morocco and 4% for the rest of AMU
2% 25%duty-free if
CET is appliedduty-free if theETLS is applied
1%duty-free for
the rest ofCENSAD
100%duty-
free intra-CEMAC
Mauritania
4% 33%duty-free for
the rest ofCENSAD
duty-free forMorocco
0.1% duty-free for therest of CENSAD 90% duty-free for
Sudan 100% duty-free forLibya
96% duty-free forTunisia 97% duty-free for
Egypt 2% duty-free forLDCs
Rest of CENSAD = Comoros (13%duty-free), Egypt (11 % duty-free) &
Sudan (7% duty-free)
Eritrea = 0.04% tariff liberalisation
27% liberalisation for the rest of CENSAD and Mauritania, 88% forLibya and 98% for Morocco
Tariff lines applicable to intra-COMESAtrade are fully liberalised
Eritrea = 0.04% tariff liberalisationon all intra-IGAD imports
Ethiopia = 5% tariff liberalisation onall intra-IGAD imports
Kenya = 37% tariff liberalisation onimports from Eritrea, Ethiopia and
Somalia
Uganda = 40% tariff liberalisationon imports from Eritrea, Ethiopia
and Somalia
7%tariff
liberalisationfor importsfrom DRC,Somalia &
Eritrea
SUDAN
Sorghum, falsebeards & wigs,cotton, milk &
cream, tobacco& sugar
Rwanda
EAC
COMESA FTA
Non-FTA COMESA
ECCAS
duty-freeimports from EAC
64%
46%from COMESA98% duty-free
9%from ECCAS18% duty-free
SACU (59%) SADC FTA excl SACU (30%)
Angola (10%) DRC (1%) Comoros (0%)
South Africa - imports from SADC RECcountries Namibia's intra-Africa imports 2019
99%of intra-Africa
imports are fromSADC
72%from SACU (duty-free
imports)
24%SADC FTA
(99.8% duty-free)
2%Angola, Comoros & DRC
(99.7% duty-free)
100% dut�-fre�
99% dut�-fre�
99.6%dut�-fre�
COMESASADC32% of intra-Africa imports
85% of intra-
Africa imports
99.9% from FTA
members
98% from FTAmembers
Mauritius intra-Africaimports
100% duty-free importsfrom Ethiopia and 99.6%from DRC, Somalia &Tunisia
all products sourced
from SADC FTA and
non-FTA countries are
duty-free products
99.99% ofimports areduty-free
100% of
imports are
duty-free
100% 100% 99% 100%
0%
98% 100%
1%
12%
76%
99% 98%
Milk
& cre
amSugar
Toilet t
issue
Cement c
linkers
Mahogany
Black ferm
ented te
a
Pasta, c
ooked
Dried, s
helled kid
ney beans
Prefa
bricate
d buildin
gs
Coffee
Conifero
us wood
White
portland cem
ent0
50
100
Kenya's intra-IGAD imports
duty-free % of a product imported by Kenya from COMESA
al� dut�-fre� impo�t�
dried kidney beans (0.8% duty-free)dried Vigna beans, denim, soybeans,
terry toweling and toilet linen(none duty-free)
prefabricated building (12% duty-free)
roasted coffee (63% duty-free)coffee (92.8% duty-free)
Rwanda's intra-Africa imports byREC and duty-free import
components
59 per cent of South Africa’s intra-SADC imports are from SACU, 30 per cent from the rest of the SADC FTA countries, 10 percent fromAngola, 1 per cent from DRC and 0.002 per cent from Comoros. 98.6 per cent of South Africa’s imports from the SADC FTA countries and99.6 per cent of imports from Angola, DRC and Comoros are duty-free.
73 per cent of Namibia’s imports from SADC are intra-SACU imports, 24 per cent from the other SADC FTA countries and 2 per cent fromAngola, Comoros and DRC. 99.8 percent and 99.7 per cent of Namibia’s respective imports from the SADC FTA countries excluding SACUand Angola, Comoros and DRC are duty-free.
Mauritius’ tariffs for intra-SADC FTA and intra-COMESA FTA imports have been fully liberalised. 99.6 per cent of imports from the otherthree COMESA countries not members of the FTA (DRC, Somalia and Tunisia) were duty-free under Mauritius’ MFN tariffs. 100% of intra-SADC imports are duty-free.
99.5 per cent of Eswatini’s intra-Africa imports are sourced from the 16 SADCcountries; 95.8 per cent from the rest of SACU, 4 per cent from the rest of the SADC FTAcountries and 0.0004 per cent from Angola, Comoros and DRC. 99.9 per cent of importsfrom the SADC FTA countries which are not SACU members are duty-free.
97 per cent of Kenya’s intra-COMESA imports are duty-free – all imports from EAC andCOMESA FTA countries, 5 per cent of imports from Ethiopia and 20 per cent of importsfrom other non-COMESA FTA countries (DRC, Somalia and Tunisia). 96 per cent ofKenya’s intra-IGAD imports are goods which can be imported into Kenya duty-freeunder the EAC and/or the COMESA FTA. The only IGAD country levied MFN tariffs isSomalia (US$4.2 million imports).
98 per cent of Rwanda's intra-COMESA imports are duty-free, while only 18 percent ofintra-ECCAS imports can be duty-free under EAC or/and COMESA FTA (imports fromBurundi). 78 per cent of intra-ECCAS imports are unwrought gold imported fromCameroon at a tariff of 25 per cent.
16 of the 28 countries which have submitted their instruments of ratification of the AfCFTA have updated trade information for 2019 whichis used for the trade analysis. A combination of trade and tariff data can be utilised to determine the state of intra-REC trade.
are Intra-CENSAD
are intra-AMU5
50%74%
58%from 23 CENSAD
countries
42%from Morocco
M F N t a r i f f s
3 2 %d u t y - f r e e i m p o r t s
P r e f e r e n t i a l t a r i f f s
3 7 %d u t y - f r e e i m p o r t s
28%dut�-fre� impo�t�
of intra-Africaimports
of intra-Africaimports
37% of imports fromMorocco are duty-free
12% of imports fromthe rest of AMU are
duty-free
60% intra-COMESA and 48%intra-COMESA FTA
46% intra-GAFTA - all duty-free
33% intra-CENSAD
12% intra-AGADIR = Morocco& Tunisia which are also
members of GAFTA
90% of intra-COMESA importsare duty-free
79% are duty-free imports fromCOMESA FTA countries & 8%
duty-free from Tunisia82%, 3% & 0.5% respective
imports from Ethiopia, Eritrea andSomalia & DRC are duty-free
Only 15% of intra-Africa importsare not subject to tariff
preferences - mainly sourcedfrom DRC, South Africa & Benin
98% of intra-CENSAD imports are duty-free
All imports from COMESA FTA countriesin CENSAD are duty-free
0.2% of intra-CENSAD imports are fromEritrea of which 3% are duty-free
10% of intra-CENSAD imports are underMFN tariffs of which 84% are duty-free
Mauritania's intra-Africa REC imports andduty-free components
Egypt's intra-Africa imports from RECs
46 per cent of Congo's intra-Africa imports are from ECCAS – 24per cent from the five ECCAS countries not CEMAC countries and22 per cent from the CEMAC countries. 49 per cent of intra-ECCAS imports are duty-free; mainly due to different types ofvessels being imported from Angola levied 10 per cent duties. 95per cent of intra-ECCAS imports excluding vessel imports are duty-free; basically all intra-CEMAC imports as only 0.1 per cent ofintra-ECCAS imports from outside CEMAC are duty-free imports.
79 per cent of São Tomé and Príncipe’s intra-Africa imports areintra-ECCAS imports – mainly light oils imported fromAngola. Since there is no trade agreement in place among theECCAS countries all imports are levied the MFN applied tariffs andonly 0.3 per cent of intra-ECCAS imports are duty-free.
74 per cent of Mauritania’s intra-Africa imports are fromCENSAD and 50 per cent from AMU. Morocco is a memberof both these RECs and the only country Mauritania haspreferences with under the Morocco-Mauritania FTA. Allother goods are levied the general rate of duty. Only aroundone third of intra-CENSAD and intra-AMU imports are duty-free.
80 per cent of Egypt's intra-COMESA imports are duty-freeimports from FTA countries and 8 per cent duty-freeimports from Tunisia under GAFTA and/or AGADIR. Of the33 per cent intra-CENSAD imports the majority are duty-free sourced from the COMESA FTA countries, Moroccoand Tunisia.
84 per cent of Burkina Faso's intra-Africa imports are fromECOWAS and 10 percent from CENSAD countries which are notECOWAS countries. Ivory Coast and Togo also imports significantlymore (74 per cent and 73 per cent respectively) from ECOWAScountries than from CENSAD countries which are not ECOWASmember states.
If the ETLS is applicable to intra-ECOWAS imports by Burkina Fasothen 83 per cent of intra-ECOWAS trade is duty-free, otherwiseonly 1 per cent is duty-free. 90 per cent of intra-CENSAD importsare from ECOWAS countries. 75 per cent of intra-CENSAD importsare duty-free if the ETLS is applied to those imports from ECOWAScountries. Most of these duty-free imports are from ECOWAScountries as only 5 per cent of imports from the rest of CENSAD areduty-free.
Irrespective of whether the ETLS is applicable or not, Ivory Coastmainly imports duty-free goods from ECOWAS countries. This isdue to 75 per cent of imports being crude oil imported duty-free. Ifthe ETLS is applicable 93 per cent of intra-ECOWAS imports areduty-free, otherwise duty-free imports are 77 per cent. 80 per centof intra-CENSAD imports are from ECOWAS countries, the restfrom CENSAD countries which are not ECOWAS members of whichonly 13 per cent are duty-free imports.
For goods imported under the ETLS into Togo 51 per cent of intra-ECOWAS imports are duty-free. For goods imported under MFNonly 1 per cent is duty-free. In the latter case some of the only goodswhich are imported duty-free include urea, medicines and liquefiedbutanes. 81 per cent of intra-CENSAD imports are from ECOWAScountries. However, only 41 per cent of intra-CENSAD imports areduty-free due to only 0.5 per cent of imports from countries outsideECOWAS being duty-free. Some of the goods of which the majorityof intra-CENSAD imports are sourced from outside ECOWAS at atariff higher than duty-free include Pacific Salmon, electricitymeters, fertilisers, frozen fish, control panels and food and beverageadditives. The duties applicable are either 5 per cent or 10 per cent.
Burkina Faso
Intra-CENSAD
90%from ECOWAScountries; 83%
duty-free if ETLS isapplied
10%from CENSADcountries not
ECOWASmembers; only 5%duty-free imports
NOT DUTY-FREE: cement clinkers, frozen fish, electric conductors,wheat flour & refined sugar
Ivory Coast's main intra-CENSAD imports
10% 10% 10%20%
80%
36%
58%
100%
Tariff applicable
% of intra-CENSAD imports sourced from outside ECOWAS
Frozen mackerel
Frozen sardines
Frozen �sh, n.e.s.
Papercartons
0
50
100
Trade data was sourced from the ITCTradeMap (2020) and tariff data from theITC MacMap (2020)