African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Guided Trade Initiative

On July 25th, 2022, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat unveiled its Guided Trade Initiative, which is part of its efforts to initiate commercially meaningful trade under the AfCFTA. As part of the initiative, it selected seven countries to provisionally start trading goods under the AfCFTA on a pilot basis. The countries include Rwanda, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, and Tanzania. The AfCFTA chose these countries because their tariff offers on goods have been fully approved and officially published.

The Secretariat will assist these countries to test AfCFTA trading documents and procedures on pre-selected shipments of goods among the seven Guided Trade Initiative countries. The Guided Trade Initiative will guide these shipments through customs clearance, including reduced tariff treatment under the AfCFTA in the receiving AfCFTA countries. The shipments under this initiative are expected to be completed by September 26th, 2022.

On July 25th, the AfCFTA Secretariat also published an eTariff book on its website which reflects tariff commitments for AfCFTA parties with approved and officially-published tariff schedules. It also published a rules of origin manual describing the rules for the tariff lines where there is agreement among AfCFTA parties.

For more information about developments related to, and commercial opportunities arising from, the African Continental Free Trade Area, contact Commercial Service Ghana at office.accra@trade.gov or +233(0)30-274-1870.