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)