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Mr. Giscard Lilian Ogoula (left), Secretary General of the Council of the Union of African Shippers, addressing the preparatory meeting. He is accompanied by Ms. Benonita Bismarck (middle), Managing Director of the Ghana Shippers Authority, and Mr. Catarino Fontes Pereira (right)
The Union of African Shippers’ Councils (UASC) is seeking a stronger partnership with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat to help boost intra-African trade.
As part of the move to deepen collaboration, a delegation of eight UASC members is in Accra for a five-day working visit to engage secretariat officials to maximize the gains from the initiative.
The delegation is made up of representatives from Angola, Senegal, Cameroon, Togo, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Congo.
He will also hold discussions with officials from the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and other trade facilitation agencies to help better understand the system.
Preparatory meeting
Informing the media after a preparatory meeting in Accra hosted yesterday by the Ghana Shippers Authority, UASC Secretary General Mr. Giscard Lilian Ogoula said the delegation intended to build a lasting partnership with the secretariat of the AfCFTA.
“We will need this partnership to complement our efforts to achieve the objective of the initiative,” he said.
According to Mr. Ogoula, UASC was better placed to help the secretariat operationalize the agreement across the continent through capacity building, trade facilitation, monitoring and evaluation, as well as fundraising. of data.
“The union can play a vital role in the implementation of the AfCFTA. And for us, it is important that we meet to establish the relationship that will create the path necessary to take full advantage of the gains of the initiative, ”he added.
The Director General (CEO) of the Congolese Bureau for Multimodal Cargo Management, Mr. Patient Sayiba Tambwe, also a member of the delegation, said that a well-coordinated platform was needed to accelerate the expected gains of the AfCFTA.
“We need a platform where the AfCFTA and the Union of African Shippers Councils can work together so that shippers can share the perspectives of intra-African trade.
“It is important to note that Africa’s role in world trade is very minimal. With the advent of the AfCFTA, it is essential that we increase trade between us on the continent, and the council has an important role to play in ensuring its success, ”he added.
Importance
Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Benonita Bismarck said this week-long engagement would also help clarify some of the challenges most countries face in implementing the ZLECAf.
She said the delegation would also share good business experiences in the continent and make proposals on how to overcome some of the challenges in the sector.
“East Africa has been able to ensure smooth movement of goods from one country to another. In West Africa, this is not the case; we have more than 52 security barriers from Accra to Ouagadougou.
“What has been successfully implemented in East Africa can also be learned and repeated in West Africa. These are the experiences that we want to share with our engagement with the AfCFTA secretariat, ”said Ms. Bismarck.
She referred to some challenges such as rules of origin, around which there was also a certain level of apprehension among investors as to what to expect in the near future.
“Members need to know the correct answers to give when asked any of these questions,” she said.
Rules of Origin
Rules of origin are essentially the criteria for determining the nationality of a product. A good rule of origin requires that more than 70 percent of an exported product be made locally in the exporting country.
According to the United Nations Trade and Development Commission (UNCTAD), rules of origin should be simplified, business-friendly and predictable for the expected gains from the AfCFTA to materialize.
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