From May 16-27, 2022, Members of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) held the 7th meeting of the Sub-Committee on Rules of Origin (RoO) to discuss outstanding issues, the draft AfCFTA RoO manual, and the alignment of Rules of Origin legal texts and related trading documents. The meeting took place in Accra, Ghana. The meeting was organised jointly by the AfCFTA Secretariat and the European Union-World Customs Organization (WCO) Programme for Rules of Origin in Africa (RoO-Africa Programme), funded by the European Union. About eighty RoO experts representing 40 Member administrations, the East African Community, ECOWAS and the Community of Sahel-Saharan States took part in the meeting.
In his opening remarks the Director of Trade in Goods and Competition of the AfCFTA Secretariat, expressed his appreciation for the support provided by the EU and the WCO on the implementation of the Rules of Origin under the RoO-Africa Programme. He emphasised the importance of continued support being provided to AfCFTA in order to appropriately implement Annex 2 Rules of Origin of the AfCFTA trade agreement. He further encouraged the delegates to productively work on the outstanding issues during the meeting.
During the meeting, the WCO presented the Rules of Origin for Africa Programme to the meeting. In their submission, they highlighted that the programme would provide direct technical assistance capacity to the AfCFTA Secretariat, training and training assessments, study visits, and many other benefits to all relevant programme stakeholders.
The AfCFTA presented to the Sub-Committee meeting the state of play with regard to the outstanding issues in AfCFTA Appendix IV on Rules of Origin and the draft manual on RoO. The meeting participants had in-depth discussions on outstanding Rules of Origin, especially on the textiles and apparel proposals, in order to find a way forward. In addition, the meeting finalised the AfCFTA RoO Manual and aligned it, for submission to the Committee on Trade in Goods and ultimately to the Council of Ministers.
In conclusion, the meeting welcomed the EU-WCO Programme for Rules of Origin in Africa's support to the AfCFTA and wished for continued cooperation for successful implementation and management of Rules of Origin.