A well-known trade facilitation outfit from South Africa has reliably told Freight News that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was this morning in the process of launching an online tariff facility.
When the information was received at 09:33 this morning, a countdown clock for the service to go live stood at two hours, 26 minutes, which means the facility could be live already.
Global Trade Solution (GTS) from South Africa described the news as a “big event happening in Accra”, headquarters of the AfCFTA, and heralding one of the bloc’s most important milestones.
Although the announcement of the online tariff solution by the AfCFTA Secretariat has been kept under wraps, the GTS representative said some of the biggest names in the World Customs Organisation were attending the auspicious event.
A formal pronouncement from the three-day session of the 9th Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the AfCFTA, expounding on the service and its e-Tariff Book, is expected soon.
The free trade area, much anticipated by industry but described by some as dead in the water since it was launched on New Year’s Day in 2020, will by all accounts be taking a significant stride forward with its online tariff facility.
One of South Africa’s most important online tariff experts, GTS founder and managing director Louise Wiggett, flew to Ghana to attend the event and is expected to flesh out details upon her return.
