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From October 3 to 5, 2023 in Cotonou, Benin, the Commission supported the Task Force on the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme in the organization of a high-level ministerial meeting on trade obstacles on the Abidjan- Lagos Corridor. This followed observations made by economic operators of the persistence of practices which are contrary to the ECOWAS protocols on the free movement of originating products on the said corridor, and in violation of regional and international agreements on transit trade, in particular the ECOWAS Customs Code and the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO-TFA).
As a reminder, the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor alone carries nearly 70% of intra-regional trade, with a certain impact on hinterland countries such as Burkina, Mali and Niger. The elimination of barriers to trade on this corridor will, without a doubt, contribute to creating a favorable environment for investments, job creation, wealth creation and subsequently, fight against poverty and ensure peace and security in the region.
Following the presentation made by the President of the Task Force on the status of implementation of the protocols on the free movement of people and goods by Member States in general and on the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor in particular, the 63rd Ordinary Session of the Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Bissau on July 9, 2023, instructed the ETLS Task Force to convene, with the support of the ECOWAS Commission, the high-level ministerial meeting in Benin to address the challenges on the Abidjan-Lagos corridor within 90 days.
The high-level meeting of representatives of the States of the Abidjan – Lagos corridor had the general objective of taking stock of the various challenges and obstacles as well as the reasons and motivations causing them, in order to propose appropriate solutions, in accordance with Community texts with a view to restoring the fluidity of traffic across borders and the facilitation of trade through the opening of the land borders of said States to products in transit and to products approved under the ETLS.
The ministerial meeting was preceded by a meeting of technicians from the five corridor states including representatives of the customs administrations, the Ministries in charge of Trade, Finance and Foreign Affairs and professional associations of the private sector. This preparatory meeting for the ministerial meeting made it possible to review current regional initiatives with a view to facilitating the free movement of community products. These include:
– The procedure for recognizing community origin and the procedures for settling disputes over the origin of community products, in accordance with the provisions of Additional A/SA.7/12/18, establishing the community rules of origin and procedures applicable to products originating from ECOWAS adopted in Abuja on December 22, 2018;
– Mutual administrative assistance and customs cooperation with a view to securing and facilitating the international logistics chain and the need to establish a balance between control and facilitation to ensure the smooth flow of legal trade;
– The interconnected System for the Management of Goods in Transit (SIGMAT) which aims to create confidence in the transit procedure, secures transit trade and improves the fluidity of cross-border trade. To date, nine (9) ECOWAS Member States have deployed SIGMAT in their customs systems;
– Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Development Project whose major objective is to transform the Abidjan-Lagos transport corridor into an economic corridor, through the development of anchoring and supporting infrastructure projects that create links between transport infrastructure and economic sectors generating trade and investment.
At the end of two days of discussions, the experts formulated recommendations in the form of a declaration, dubbed the “Cotonou declaration” which was submitted for the assessment and adoption of Ministers on October 5, 2023. This declaration proposes actions to be implemented by both the ECOWAS Commission and the Member States of the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor, with a view to definitively lifting barriers to trade in goods on the said Corridor.
High table of the ministerial meeting: from left to right: The President of the ETLS Task Force, the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Nigeria, The President of the ECOWAS Commission and the Minister of Economy and Finance of Benin Republic.
Participants at the workshop