The Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) is set to launch the Southern African Development Community (SADC) electronic certificate of origin (e-coo) next month, as the country moves to comply with the regional bloc’s protocol on trade.
The newly launched e-coo is intended to address the challenges encountered with manual Certificate of Origin by simplifying customs procedures, enhancing e-Commerce, eliminating fraud, improving record management and statistical data, reducing cross-border certificate verification time, and reducing the cost of doing business.
NamRA’s Chief Strategic Communications and Support Engagements Officer Yarukeekuro Ndorokaze said Namibia’s planned launched is aimed at adhering to the national Information Communications Technology (ICT) Guidelines as per the Harambee Prosperity Plan II, the SADC Protocol on Trade.
This move will also ensure that the country complies with the World Customs Organization (WCO) Revised Kyoto Convention ICT Guidelines and the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement.
Ndorokaze said the SADC e-coo implementation will not only guarantee that NamRA meets its strategic objectives of improving trade facilitation and pursuing innovation but will also improve compliance with regional and international requirements.
“The expected benefits from the use of the SADC e-coo 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,” he explained.
“NamRA wishes to inform 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.”
