ECOWAS trains trainers on trade liberalization scheme implementation

In its bid to boost free trade and foster trade integration, the ECOWAS Department for Economic Affairs and Agriculture organized a train-the-trainer workshop on the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) of the National Committee of Origin Recognition (NCOR) and sensitized the private sector in Monrovia, Liberia from May 16 to 17, 2022.

The establishment of the ETLS in the 1990s provided a community framework for operationalizing the ECOWAS Free Trade Zone. With evolving global procedures for origin recognition and a need to ensure that ETLS becomes a vehicle for industrial and economic growth in West Africa, ECOWAS revised all origin-related texts.

A supplementary act on ECOWAS rules of origin and origin recognition procedures was adopted in December 2018. Two regulations on modalities for implementing this supplementary act were adopted by the Council of Ministers in December 2021. The primary goal of these reforms was to update and simplify procedures for community origin recognition and certification while respecting member states' commitments with international organizations such as the World Customs Organization (WCO) and World Trade Organization (WTO).

To ensure that customs administrations, national committees for origin recognition (NCOR), and the private sector are well-equipped to implement these provisions, the Customs Union and Taxation Directorate has programmed a series of training workshops. These workshops will take a train-the-trainer format, where focal points from NCOR will be trained to subsequently educate various stakeholders in their respective countries.

Participants will be drawn from customs administrations and other NCOR structures. The main purpose is to train focal points on new ECOWAS rules of origin during working sessions and sensitize the private sector on ETLS advantages.

The workshops will focus mainly on new provisions introduced in the supplementary act and regulations. This initiative aims to enable focal points to identify originating products accurately, train others at a national level, and raise awareness about new ECOWAS rules of origin.