Another emerging Customs Union in Africa? AES reveals plans for Common External Tariff adoption

There is confirmation that the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)—comprising Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger—has initiated steps toward establishing a Common External Tariff (CET) as part of broader economic integration efforts. On October 3, 2025, during a meeting in Bamako, officials from AES member states and Togo discussed the modernization and harmonization of customs information systems. The discussions included strategies to improve the efficiency of customs duty collection, enhance cross-border cooperation, and critically, establish preferential tariffs within the AES region.

Additionally, the meeting focused on drafting an AES Community Customs Code and developing a Common External Tariff for the AES bloc (AES-CET). These initiatives are part of broader efforts to strengthen the alliance’s economic integration and streamline trade among member states.

In March 2025, AES member states introduced a common 0.5% levy on imports from non-AES countries, marking a first step toward a unified trade policy and advancing the bloc's aspirations toward a customs union.

These developments indicate a clear intent by the AES to deepen economic integration and move toward a customs union, consistent with objectives outlined in recent customs cooperation discussions.

However, implementing a CET and establishing a Community Customs Code will require careful coordination among member states to harmonize customs procedures, align tariff schedules and national trade policies. The involvement of Togo suggests a regional approach to customs modernization, potentially setting a precedent for broader West African economic integration.

The AES, initially founded as a mutual defense pact with a roadmap for a monetary union, is now moving toward deeper economic integration by actively pursuing the creation of a Common External Tariff and establish a customs union, even though it has not yet created a comprehensive free trade area with fully liberalized intra-regional trade.

This development highlights a broader trend in African economic integration, where the traditional sequence of Free Trade Area → Customs Union → Common Market → Monetary Union is increasingly giving way to non-linear approaches. States are creatively disassembling and recomposing integration steps, advancing in flexible, context-specific patterns rather than following a rigid linear trajectory, like illustrated by the AES example that we already pointed out in this earlier post. The AES’s approach reflects this evolving dynamic, demonstrating that regional economic integration in Africa is becoming more adaptive, experimental, and tailored to the realities of security, trade, and governance. We discussed this emerging trend in this recent paper.