The Rules of Origin in the legal documents that established the AfCFTA, touches on among other things, the “Certificate of Origin” which means the documentary proof of origin; “Chapter” which refers to the two-digit Chapters code used in the nomenclature; “CIF Value” which is the price paid by the importer; as well as “Classified” which speaks to the classification of a product or material under a particular Heading or Sub-heading.
According to a Chief Revenue Officer at the Ghana Revenue Authority, Customs Division, Fechin Akoto, although the processes involved in it are time-consuming, some going into years of work, they have been able to attain an 81 percent of it so far.
“The fact of the matter is that Rules of Origin takes a long time to negotiate… some have taken three years, eight years and haven’t completed but we have completed our negotiations to this state in about three years. And I can tell you that the agreed rules are 81 percent complete from the analysis.
“And when you analyze what ECOWAS has offered for the 90 percent, ECOWAS has close to 73 percent rules agreed on which we can use to trade with,” he stated.
He made this known during his presentation on the Rules of Origin during the Sensitization Seminar on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on the theme, “AfCFTA: Adopting The Right Business Strategies To Fully Benefit” and organized by the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
The event was organized by the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce & Industry, sponsored by the Bank of Africa, and supported by GhanaWeb, the Ghana Shippers Authority, among other organizations.
