{"id":126806,"date":"2026-03-04T11:07:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/?p=126806"},"modified":"2026-03-04T11:09:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:09:41","slug":"meeting-on-the-implementation-of-self-certification-of-community-origin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/?p=126806","title":{"rendered":"MEETING ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SELF-CERTIFICATION OF COMMUNITY ORIGIN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Customs administrations of four pilot ECOWAS Member States \u2014 Nigeria, Ghana, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire and Senegal \u2014 are meeting in Abidjan from 3 to 5 March 2026 to deliberate on the implementation of self-certification of Community origin within the ECOWAS region under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The ETLS remains the principal instrument for promoting the free movement of goods produced within the ECOWAS region. It serves as a key mechanism for advancing economic integration and development, in line with Article 3 of the ECOWAS Revised Treaty.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Since its inception in the 1990s, the Scheme has evolved to respond to the changing needs of Member States and the private sector, particularly within the context of an increasingly dynamic global trading environment. As part of ongoing reforms, new Community legal instruments and initiatives have been introduced to further facilitate trade and create a more enabling business environment, reinforcing the message that the ECOWAS region remains open and ready for investment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One such initiative is the introduction of self-certification of Community origin under the ETLS. In line with international best practices, this measure is designed to enhance the fluidity of cross-border trade in originating goods within the region. It allows compliant exporters to declare the origin of their products directly on their commercial invoices, without recourse to the national competent authority for the issuance of a certificate of origin, for the purpose of obtaining preferential tariff treatment in the importing Member State.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In his opening remarks, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Dr. Kalilou Sylla, underscored the critical importance of facilitating the cross-border movement of goods within the Community and emphasized the central role of Customs administrations in advancing regional economic integration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Customs administrations of four pilot ECOWAS Member States \u2014 Nigeria, Ghana, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire and Senegal \u2014 are meeting in Abidjan from 3 to 5 March 2026 to deliberate on the implementation of self-certification of Community origin within the ECOWAS region under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS). &nbsp; The ETLS remains the principal instrument for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":126807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[300,480,12,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-news","category-info-cedeao-2","category-news","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126831,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126806\/revisions\/126831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/126807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}