The COMESA Secretariat is nearing completion of the e-Certificate of Origin (e-CO) integration with the national e-CO systems of Kenya, Seychelles, and Ethiopia.
Additionally, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Mauritius, Rwanda, and Tunisia are working with the Secretariat and have completed their national situational assessments as they prepare to interface with and implement the COMESA e-CO system.The eCO system will replace the manual certificates and help to circumvent the manual process.Certificates of Origin are issued to exporters within the COMESA Free Trade Area (FTA) to confer preferential treatment to goods originating from an FTA member State.
The uptake of the electronic certificate has not gained traction among Member States in the past for lack of the necessary regulations under the COMESA Rules of Origin (RoO).
The decision to adopt the eCo was made by the Council of Ministers in 2014 to replace the manual certificate. The objective was to facilitate intra-regional trade through reduction in the costs and time required in registration, application and submission of certificates and the post-verification of originating goods. In November 2019, the 40th Meeting of the Council of Ministers adopted the draft regulations to implement the COMESA eCO system.
Subsequently, a Technical Working Group (TWG) on Rules of Origin was tasked to review the Rules to facilitate implementation of the COMESA eCO and other trade facilitation instruments.
Assistant Secretary General in charge of Programmes (ASGP) Mohamed Kadah noted that in addition to the e-CO, COMESA is exploring means of customs-to-customs electronic exchange of data, an electronic single window and other customs applications supported by the cutting-edge technologies such as blockchain, big data and AI.