From 18 to 20 April 2023, the World Customs Organization (WCO) conducted a refresher workshop for African Accredited and Pre-Accredited Experts on Rules of Origin (RoO) in Brussels, within the framework of the EU‑WCO RoO Africa Programme, funded by the European Union (EU).
The workshop took place as part of the WCO support for the effective implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement and in line with the work plan and capacity-building needs agreed with the AfCFTA Secretariat. The objective of the workshop was to further enhance the knowledge of WCO Accredited and Pre-Accredited Experts on current issues around RoO, with a focus on the AfCFTA agreement, hence creating a solid base of trainers in Africa to deliver on national and regional capacity-building activities.
In her opening remarks the Programme Manager, Director General for International Partnerships at the European Commission, highlighted that the EU strongly supported Africa's economic integration through several partnerships and programmes. This workshop, among other actions of the RoO Africa Programme, is considered a significant step to build capacity and expertise on the AfCFTA RoO, thus ensuring effective and efficient implementation of the AfCFTA agreement and ultimately supporting the AU objective of boosting intra-Africa trade.
In her opening remarks, the WCO Deputy Director, Tariff and Trade Affairs, thanked the EU for its support, via the EU-WCO RoO Africa Programme, for both the refresher course and the other support activities to African partners. She highlighted that continuous learning through refresher workshops for all accredited and pre-accredited experts was a priority for the WCO to ensure the highest standards of expertise were maintained, building a strong base for member countries and WCO capacity building. She noted that, with the funding available via the EU-WCO RoO Africa Programme, there had been extensive training activities in Africa, meaning that many African experts had been able to complete the transition from pre-accredited to accredited status in the last six months after co-facilitating training activities with the WCO. This was creating an exceptional pool of accredited experts for the region.
RoO play a critical role in Customs clearance, thus knowledge attained from the training will contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of Customs officials and the trade community. During the workshop, the WCO facilitators presented the EU-WCO RoO Africa Programme and an overview of the AfCFTA RoO. As it was an interactive workshop, participants presented and led discussion sessions and exercises on key AfCFTA concepts on origin determination, such as origin criteria, cumulation, certification and verification and other issues related to operational and procedural issues and the establishment of efficient AfCFTA origin management structures. Experts also examined several provisions, including Article 19 of the Agreement Establishing the AfCFTA, to understand the Article's impact on AfCFTA RoO implementation.
The workshop was an opportunity for all participants to familiarise themselves with the new WCO Accredited Customs Experts (ACE) portal launched in September 2022. The ACE Portal is a web-based platform that facilitates the WCO’s management and mobilisation of subject matter experts from a global perspective and gives the experts the ability to manage their profiles and availability.
The EU-WCO RoO Africa Programme will continue its work on RoO within the continent through capacity building to efficiently implement the AfCFTA and relevant Free Trade Agreements (FTA).