On 4 October the World Customs Organisation (WCO) signed the €5-million contract for the “Harmonizing the classification of goods based on WCO standards to enhance Africa trade” programme with the representative of the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (EU DEVCO).
The 41-month programme is being funded by the European Union (EU) and carried out by the WCO. It contributes to the implementation of the World Trade Organisation Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO-TFA) and to the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), formally launched by the Assembly of the African Union on 21 March in Kigali, Rwanda. Furthermore, the programme contributes to the EU’s External Investment Plan and to the Joint Africa-EU Strategy, adopted at the Lisbon Summit in 2007 and refined at subsequent summits in 2010, 2014 and 2017.
The anticipated outcome of the Programme for 2022 is that the beneficiary African countries will implement and apply the 2022 version of the HS in line with the Harmonised System (HS) Convention, the WTO-TFA and the WCO’s Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC), together with continental and regional commitments. The longer-term objective is to provide African countries with the required organisational capacities and resources to migrate and apply future HS versions in a timely manner that is coordinated throughout the entire continent and region.
To date, 49 of the 54 African countries have ratified the HS Convention but only 29 apply the HS 2017. Only six countries apply the WCO Council Recommendation on the improvement of tariff classification work and related infrastructure, while only eight countries apply the Recommendation on Advance Rulings. The programme offers benefits to Africa’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs), Customs administrations and relevant stakeholders, including the Africa Union (AU) Commission, selected national government administrations and the private sector.