After the time of the politicians, here comes the experts. For 4 days, (from July 17 to 20), Senegalese trade actors, bringing together economic operators, businesses, the private sector, employers and customs officers will discuss the technical aspects of product liberalization in the context of trade. African Continental Free Trade Area.
Emphasis will be on rules of origin (RO) and trade in services. The objective of this meeting is to involve all the actors of the trade in order to better defend the interests of Senegal in this process of liberalization.
On the first day, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Commerce, Consumer Affairs, Informal Sector and SMEs, Makhtar Lah, announced the liberalization of 5 priority sectors. These are financial services, transport, travel, business services and communication.
“The release of these 5 sectors with high added value, testifies the importance that Senegal attaches to this common market, which will have 2.5 billion consumers by 2050,” he said.
For his part, Fallou Mbow Fall, Director of Foreign Trade of Senegal, has gone back a long way on the fundamentals of the concept of rules of origin (RO), which are instruments used to harmonize the pricing of the different products traded in this zone.
According to the international trade specialist, ROs are excellent indicators that can inform, if the region tends to develop intra-African trade and industrial value added.
Bringing more details on the ROs, the manager revealed that, “the RO appendix is a list of rule settlements, which specifies the nature where the level of delivery or processing sufficient that the non-originating material must to achieve that the product obtained is considered as original.
Enumerating certain criteria of the ROs, the manager explained that the appendix essentially contains two fundamental criteria namely the criteria of products entirely obtained and the criteria of change of tariffs.
This allows member countries, if they want to make a product, to prioritize raw materials available regionally before importing.
And, therefore, this shows that the ZLECA states are resolutely committed to the development of intra-African trade, which could increase by 52.3% by eliminating import duties.
It should be noted that the African heads of state recently adopted in the Mauritanian capital, on the sidelines of the AU summit, the annexes to the Protocol on Trade in Goods, the settlement of disputes and the list of priority sectors on trade in goods. services.
It is now up to each Member State to choose its list of products to be liberalized at 90%, according to its membership of an economic area.
