Often dubbed as the last frontier for development in the global economy, Africa is nowadays at the centre of an increasing interest by other countries and trade blocks that are competing with each other in a race to expand and deepen their sphere of influence and their relationship with the continent. Bilateral Summits and Business Fora are being organized more and more frequently by foreign countries to promote cooperation and discuss new investment and project opportunities in a continent that is expected to grow more than any other regional areas in the world in the forthcoming years. Undoubtedly, the recent launch of the African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has acted as a catalyst in growing such interest.

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In January 2022, the AfCFTA Secretariat announced the imminent release of an AfCFTA Tariff Book inclusive of Rules of Origin with the customs procedures applicable to each product traded under the AfCFTA. This was followed, on February 15, 2022, by an MOU that was signed by the AfCFTA Secretariat with the World Customs Organisation (WCO) to strengthen the organisational capacity, transparency and effectiveness of African Customs administrations, which included an engagement to provide support in populating the AfCFTA Tariff Book. On 27 January 2022, during a virtual meeting held by representatives of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), the AfCFTA Secretariat and the EU Commission on the review of the state of play in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Head of Customs Cooperation, Trade Facilitation and Transit at the AfCFTA Secretariat announced that the AfCFTA tariff book will be in practice an “e-tariff book”, i.e., a web-based digital tariff platform which will include the tariff offers submitted by AfCFTA signatories, with the tariff rates applicable for each product traded under the AfCFTA agreement, that will be made available to anyone in a user-friendly and easily accessible manner.

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