Category A products are those from sectors including agro-processing, agriculture, transport or the automotive industry, pharmaceuticals, and textiles.
The offer will allow 90.2 percent (5,129 tariff lines out of the total 5,688 lines)to be liberalized in 10 years.
The new development was announced during an extraordinary meeting of regional Ministers of Trade, Industry, Finance, and Investment at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The new development was announced during an extraordinary meeting of regional Ministers of Trade, Industry, Finance, and Investment at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
In line with officials, this means that the EAC is now among the State Parties that have met the minimum requirements for Category A to start trading on a provisional basis.
The tariff offers will be subjected to verification by the AfCFTA Secretariat, which is based in Accra, Ghana.
The AfCFTA has so far verified 29 tariff offers to ensure that they meet the modalities and this will increase to 34 once the EAC Partner States offers are verified.
Verification of the tariff offers will ensure that the AfCFTA Member States that meet the minimum requirements start trading under the Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.
Kevit Desai, Kenya’s Permanente Secretary EAC, who chaired the meeting told The New Times that “this is a very exciting and profound new development with respect to EAC’s development agenda.”
Further saying that the AfCFTA has so far verified 29 tariff offers to ensure that they meet the modalities and this will increase to 34 once the EAC Partner States offers are verified.
“This also means that together, as EAC, we have the potential to raise our standards collectively by investing in technology transfer and industrial capacity now we have the market which spurs investment and this has a huge bearing in terms of employment creation,” he added.
About Post Author
