Increased trade in the crosshairs of e-certificate of origin

The Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) yesterday launched the SADC Electronic Certificate of Origin (e-CoO).

This development is in the revenue agency’s quest to adhere to the national Information Communications Technology (ICT) guidelines as per the Harambee Prosperity Plan Il, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Trade, the Revised Kyoto Convention ICT Guidelines by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement.

“The envisaged implementation of the SADC E-CoO will not only ensure that NamRA meets its strategic objectives of enhancing trade facilitation and pursuing innovation, but it will also enhance compliance with regional and international requirements as stated above,” read a statement from a NamRA spokesperson.

The main objective of the SADC eCoO is to facilitate the easy movement of goods in addition to reducing the cost of doing business within the region in relation to goods that conform to the SADC Rules of Origin.

The expected benefits from the use of the SADC eCoO include improving intra-regional trade, promoting a paperless environment, time efficiency, increased trade and reduction of origin fraud risks.

The SADC e-CoO is an electronically processed and issued certificate of origin by an issuing authority, attesting that the goods declared by an exporter conform to specific rules of origin. The SADC Secretariat encouraged the Member States, through their customs administrations, to migrate from the manual processing of the certificate of origin to the electronic version.

“NamRA hereby informs all exporters, manufacturers, customs clearing agents and freight forwarders, as well as the public that the issuance of the SADC e-CoO will commence on 6 December 2022 in respect of all applications relating to products traded under the SADC Protocol on Trade,” the revenue agency stated.