Regional workshop highlights the importance of efficient transit regimes for LLDCs

From 26 to 29 February 2024 the World Customs Organization (WCO) delivered a Regional Workshop on transit interconnectivity and the use of regional transit guarantees for the West and Central Africa (WCA) region. The event that gathered around 40 participants from Member Customs administrations, partner international organizations, regional economic communities and development partners was held in Douala, Cameroon with the financial support of the Customs Cooperation Fund of Japan (CCF Japan).

The workshop was organized as a WCO pre-conference event to the Third United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) that will be held from 18 to 21 June 2024 in Kigali, Rwanda and will adopt a renewed framework for international support to address the special needs of LLDCs.

The first day of the workshop was devoted to discussions on the principle of freedom of transit and the provisions of the relevant international and regional framework including the Agreement on Trade Facilitation of the World Trade Organization (WTO TFA), the Revised Kyoto Convention, the WCO Transit Guidelines, and the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) among others. This was done based on presentations delivered by the WCO experts and the AfCFTA Secretariat.

In a dedicated session, the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN OHRLLS) provided an overview of the Vienna Programme of Action for LLDCs for the Decade 2014 - 2024 and the preparatory process for the Third United Nations Conference on LLDCs (LLDC3). The session explained the possible areas of action for the decade 2024 – 2034 that are currently under consideration by the LLDC3 Preparatory Committee, among which trade, trade facilitation and regional integration, and transit, transport and connectivity.

Then participants delved into the topic of transit interconnectivity in West Africa. Seven Members of the sub-region (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Togo) presented the status of implementation of the Interconnected System for the Management of Goods in Transit widely known as SIGMAT from the French title Système Interconnecté pour la Gestion des Marchandises en Transit. The presentations covered the benefits of SIGMAT implementation, as well as the associated challenges and lessons learnt. The Members’ presentations were supplemented by the perspective of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the World Bank and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The main objective of these sessions was to showcase good practices implemented by Members of the West Africa sub-region, with a view to enabling other Members to benefit from the lessons learnt and to replicate those good practices throughout the region. There was a shared understanding of the benefits of SIGMAT implementation, which include having a system based on the WCO Data Model that facilitates transit, reduces fraud by providing certainty on the movement of trucks and real-time cargo information, and leads to enhanced revenue collection. This in turn facilitates access to the sea by the three LLDCs of the sub-region (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger), as well as intensifies intra-regional trade. In terms of future perspectives, information was shared on the plans for interconnecting the transit systems of additional Members of the sub-region, including plans for tripartite interconnectivity, the prospective deployment of a mobile version of SIGMAT and the potential integration in SIGMAT of regional transit guarantees functionality. The sessions also highlighted various aspects that needed to be considered by Central Africa Members in the future process of SIGMAT deployment, such as the need for a legal text at regional level to enable the exchange of data, the need for establishing stable multi-disciplinary teams in the respective administrations, as well as the need for training of Customs staff and stakeholders.

Following the lively exchanges on SIGMAT implementation in West Africa, the workshop delved into the status of transit systems in Central Africa based on presentations provided by the AFRITAC Centre of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Customs administrations of Cameroon and of the two LLDCs in the sub-region - the Central African Republic and Chad. The session took stock of the developments so far, which included a commitment to implement SIGMAT in Central Africa made by the Directors General of Customs administrations of the sub-region, the appointment of national transit managers in all Members of the Central Africa sub-region, and the establishment of a Transit Committee at the level of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC - Communauté Economique et Monétaire des Etats de l'Afrique Centrale), which has held its first meeting in August 2023.

During the last day of the workshop, participants engaged in interactive discussions on the guiding principles for the establishment of efficient transit guarantee schemes supplemented by information on relevant work undertaken at the regional level by the ECOWAS Commission, as well as by the Afreximbank. The last substantive workshop session considered the application of Customs seals and other security measures in transit, based on presentations by the WCO and the Customs administration of Cameroon, the latter underscoring the importance of securing transit movements with a view to safeguarding revenue concerns.

In his closing remarks the Director of International Cooperation and Taxation Bases at the Directorate General of Cameroon Customs thanked the WCO for organizing this important event in Douala - a crucial hub for transit traffic in Africa. The Director went on to thank the workshop participants for sharing their respective good practices in the area of transit and invited the participating Customs administrations to benefit from the knowledge and insights shared during the event.