The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Common External Tariff (CET) will come into effect on the 1st January 2015. The information was released yesterday at the on-going summit of ECOWAS’ Heads of State and Government members in Abuja (Nigeria).
“After nine years of continuous work, consultations, negotiations intra involving all stakeholders in our community, based on previous studies of impact assessments both national and regional, our community has achieve one of its main goals of integration, “said the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Kadré Desire Ouedraogo, in a statement.
According to the statement, the ECOWAS Common External Tariff regime would ensure the free movement of all members of ECOWAS at the borders and to guarantee that duties were not paid on goods from neighbouring countries. Mr. Kadré Desire Ouedraogo disclosed that several regulations had been put in place to ensure the smooth implementation of the CET so as to promote competitiveness and to provide protection to community industry.
The same text specifies that the CET consists a list of products includes four categories corresponding to the four tariff bands of the West Africa Economic and the Monetary Union Common External Tariff of (0%, 5%, 10% and 20%), from essential social and basic necessities goods, basic raw materials, capital good and specific inputs.
Some of the benefits which will be derived from CET were listed as the accelerated process of regional integration, the facilitation of the consolidation of the regional market and the facilitation of crucial linkages in the value chain.