TARIFF CONCESSIONS DIRECTIVE TO BE IMPLEMENTED

MBABANE - The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade is in a process of implementing a directive on the Application of Provisional Schedules of Tariff Concessions in Eswatini.

This was mentioned by Minister of Commerce, industry and trade Manqoba Khumalo in an interview yesterday. Khumalo said the Directive seeks to operationalize the implementation of the provisional Schedules of Tariff Concessions in accordance with the agreed Modalities for Tariff Liberalisation and the Decision of the Thirteenth (13th) Extraordinary Session of the African Union Assembly in December 2020.

He said the main objective of the meeting was to consider the outstanding issues under the first round of negotiations covering both trade in goods and trade in services and finalise the negotiations as directed by the 35th Ordinary Session of Heads of State and Government to facilitate the start of trading. “On trade in goods, issues considered were on tariff schedules, the outstanding rules of origin on products such as Sugar, Textile and Apparel and Tobacco, including adoption of the draft AfCFTA Rules of Origin Manual,” he said. The minister said the agreement sought to ensure that inputs on these products were sourced within the African region during the production process. He said this would assist in improving the productive capacity of the African countries to promote industrial development and facilitate regional value chains and supply chains.

Issues

Khumalo alluded that other issues considered include the AfCFTA Automotive Package, focusing on the development of a comprehensive strategy, within the framework of the AfCFTA, for automotive manufacturing in Africa, “A Strategy for the African Automotive Manufacturing Sector,” he said. He availed that the Strategy takes into consideration the establishment of the Automotive Task Force for effective implementation, policy elements including the finalisation of the outstanding rules of origin for automotive. Also inclusive is the harmonisation of standards and trade administration, component manufacturing development and localisation programmes and financial support measures to Member States. “Eswatini can also take advantage in the automotive sector considering the prospects,” he said.

The minister also mentioned that the adoption of the Trade in services schedule of specific commitments for the various Member States, including Eswatini were considered in the reports of the committees on trade in services, Investment, Intellectual Property Rights, and Competition Policy. The AfCFTA Agreement covering both trade in goods and trade in services was signed by Heads of State and Government in March 2018, in Kigali, Rwanda, and the start of trading was launched in January 2021. 54 Member States of the AU have signed the AfCFTA Agreement and 42 of these have ratified and deposited the instruments of ratification and have become State Parties. It was estimated that the AfCFTA will boost intra-African trade by 52.3 per cent once import duties and non-tariff barriers are eliminated.

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