Kinshasa, July 3rd, 2021 (CPA).– Participants in the work of the African Continental Free Trade Zone (ZLECAF) tariff commission, which closed their work on Thursday, July 1, recommended that the government finalize the integration of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the ZLECAF by depositing the instruments of ratification at the Commission of the African Union (AU), the CPA learned from the sources of the Ministry of Finance.
They also called for the DRC to join the facilitation mechanism recognized by the AU, with a view to compensating for losses in customs revenue and measuring the need in order to support the competitiveness of national industries and revive agricultural production.
The Deputy Minister of Finance, O’neige N’sele, who proceeded Thursday, July 1, said session, said she was satisfied with the work done by the participants who succeeded in validating the ZLECAF tariff project which takes into account the tariff dismantling as planned for the first operationalization of the ZLECAF, and which will allow the General Directorate of Customs and Excise (DGDA) to operate in strict compliance with the standards governing this sector.
She affirmed that it is the government’s duty to support economic operators and she called on them to be competitive vis-à-vis this large market which is open to them, while calling for
the DGDA to train its agents and executives on the ZLECAF tariff, as well as on the rules of origin applicable in the context of trade with other members of the African community, in order to secure public revenue in this new context.
« I ask the Directorate General of the DGDA to popularize these instruments as quickly as possible to economic operators, and to all national stakeholders, in order to enable them to draw the best profiles from them, » concluded Deputy Minister O ‘N’sele snow.
According to the Acting Director General of the DGDA, Jean Baptiste Nkongolo Kabila, the new customs tariff which has just been validated is of particular importance for the DRC at this precise moment. Once enacted, it will, among other things, allow customs to efficiently collect customs taxes in the context of free trade. It will be the instrument that will allow our country to participate effectively in the reference exchanges of the ZLECAF launched since January 1, 2021, subject to reciprocity. ACP/NIG