YAOUNDE, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Customs officials of Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) on Thursday began meeting in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde to strategize on how to develop regional-specific business indexes to harness the potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement.
"We decided to get together as countries of the CEMAC customs region to be able to identify goods that meet the African origin criteria. We are talking about making free the transit of goods within our sub-region and what kind of goods. We are also discussing about some customs instruments that must go with a customs community like ours," Director of Cameroon customs Edwin Fongod told Xinhua.
Cameroon's Minister of Finance, Louis-Paul Motaze who chaired deliberations stressed on the important role regional customs administrations have to play in the implementation of AfCFTA which he said will overcome challenges such as high trade costs, divergent regulatory frameworks and governance issues.
The officials are expected to come up with a working document at the end of deliberations which will guide the region in the implementation of AfCFTA.
The AfCFTA was officially launched in July this year in Niamey, capital of Niger, which marked the operationalization phase of the continental free trade pact.
