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Ethiopia Resumes WTO Trade Talks Over Customs Tariffs

Dec 26 , 2023

Ethiopia's membership process to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is set to advance with negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, in the upcoming months, after three years hiatus.

Previous trade talks had stalled over issues such as the average weighted customs tariff, which at one point reached as high as 100pc. However, recent reforms have brought these tariffs down to a more manageable 41pc.

A team under chief trade negotiator Gebremesqel Challa, minister of Trade & Regional Integration (MTRI), is part of Ethiopia's efforts to balance export-import trade and standardise customs tariff.

The negotiations are set to address a comprehensive list of 181 points raised by the WTO working group. Ethiopia's accession to the WTO, targeted within the next three years, represents a step in the country's economic integration into the global market. The ambition correspondence with Ethiopia's recent inclusion in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), where it has gained approval to trade 5,700 commodities tariff-free. A ministerial meeting in Tanzania unanimously voted Ethiopia's inclusion. Trade negotiators have submitted initial tariff offers for 6,402 goods to the AfCFTA Secretariat, based in Accra, Ghana, with negotiations ongoing for 448 goods classified as sensitive and 192 as exclusive.

Other countries, such as Kenya and Ghana, commenced trading in items such as car batteries. The Trade Minister disclosed the ongoing selection of goods for trial periods and signalled the importance of engaging the private sector in these discussions.

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