The Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area, Wamkele Mene, is conducting a two-day official visit to the Central African Republic (CAR) focused on accelerating the country’s full participation in the continental free trade area, with gazetting of tariff offers identified as the critical next step for CAR to access the preferential market of over 1.4 billion people.
Mene held high-level discussions with Prime Minister H.E. Félix Moloua, where both leaders reviewed AfCFTA implementation progress across the continent and examined specific pathways for the Central African Republic to move from formal ratification to active participation in continental trade.
With 50 State Parties having ratified the Agreement and 26 countries having gazetted their tariff offers, CAR’s completion of this technical but essential step would enable its businesses to both benefit from and contribute to the growing intra-African trade flows under the AfCFTA framework.
The gazetting of tariff offers represents a critical transition point in AfCFTA implementation. While ratification of the Agreement establishes a country’s legal commitment to the continental free trade area, it is the gazetting of tariff schedules that translates that commitment into actionable market access.
Only once tariff offers are gazetted formally published in national legal instruments can customs officials apply the preferential rates, traders utilize the tariff reductions, and businesses plan investments based on secure knowledge of the trade regime.
For the Central African Republic, gazetting its tariff offers would unlock access to preferential treatment in the markets of other AfCFTA member states that have completed their own gazetting, while simultaneously providing CAR businesses with clarity on which imported inputs and goods will face reduced tariffs under the Agreement.
This reciprocal market access is the foundation of the AfCFTA’s value proposition, each country that completes gazetting both expands the market available to its own producers and contributes to expanding the integrated continental market.
The meeting between Secretary-General H.E. Mene and Prime Minister H.E. Moloua gave substantial attention to the Central African Republic’s comparative advantages and economic diversification priorities. CAR possesses significant natural resources including diamonds, gold, timber, and agricultural potential.
The discussions highlighted opportunities for industrial development through AfCFTA instruments including the Adjustment Fund. The AfCFTA Adjustment Fund is designed to help member states manage the costs of trade liberalisation and address competitiveness constraints, provides a potential financing source for the investments CAR needs to build industrial capacity.
Beyond the high-level meeting with Prime Minister Moloua, the Secretary-General’s two-day visit includes engagements with government officials responsible for trade, industry, and economic policy implementation; private sector representatives including business associations, chambers of commerce, and individual enterprises; women entrepreneurs and organisations focused on women’s economic empowerment; and youth stakeholders including young entrepreneurs and youth organisations.
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