As of 7 September 2026, according to the tally kept by the trade law centre tralac, 50 of the 54 signatories to the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement had deposited their instruments of ratification. Four had not: Benin, Libya, Sudan and South Sudan. Eritrea has not signed.
The agreement entered into force on 30 May 2019. Heads of state decided to launch trading on 1 January 2021. And yet any forwarder in Dakar, Bamako or Abidjan will tell you without hesitating that most goods crossing an African border still pay the same duty as before.
This is not a contradiction. It is the distance between a treaty and a customs office, and it can be measured.
The promise, as written
The agreement aims to bring duty to zero on 90 percent of tariff lines over five years, ten for least developed countries. 7 percent of lines can be designated sensitive and liberalised over ten years, thirteen for the least developed. The remaining 3 percent can be excluded, provided they do not exceed 10 percent of the value of trade.
The detail matters. These are tariff lines, not trade volumes. A country can liberalise 90 percent of its lines while keeping duty on the few products that make up most of its real trade. And according to tralac, trade did not in fact begin in 2021, because tariff schedules and rules of origin were not finalised.
Five reasons you are still paying
Your goods are not African in the customs sense. The preferential rate only applies to products that meet the rules of origin: wholly obtained in the country, or transformed enough to change tariff heading, under product specific rules. An item made in Asia and stored in Casablanca or Dakar does not become African by passing through a warehouse. In spring 2025, tralac reported that the rules of origin for some clothing and textiles, chapters 60 to 62, and for vehicles, chapter 87, were still under negotiation.
One of the two countries is not applying it yet. Tabling a tariff offer is not enough. The offer has to be adopted, gazetted, loaded into the customs tariff, and the certificate procedures have to exist. Both the importing and the exporting country need to be ready, and that is not always true on both sides at once.
The certificate of origin is missing or wrong. Without an AfCFTA certificate issued by the competent authority of the exporting country, the officer applies the general rate. A certificate produced after arrival, or one that carries a tariff code that does not match the invoice, has the same effect.
You are already inside a zone that does better. This is the most common case in West Africa, and the least understood. UEMOA has been a customs union with a common external tariff since 2000, so originating goods already move duty free inside it. ECOWAS runs its own trade liberalisation scheme. During the AfCFTA pilot phase, countries belonging to the same regional community kept trading under their regional regime, not under the AfCFTA. Between Dakar and Bamako, the continental zone adds nothing.
Duty is only one line of the bill. The AfCFTA removes customs duty. It does not remove VAT, 18 percent in both Senegal and Mali, nor the statistical fee, the community levies, port charges, transit costs or escorts. Nor does it remove roadside checks, which we covered in your goods are waiting at a border post.
The special case of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger
The three countries left ECOWAS on 29 January 2025. They remain members of UEMOA. That same day, the ECOWAS Commission directed member states to keep treating goods from the three countries under the ECOWAS trade liberalisation scheme until further notice. For their part, the three countries introduced a 0.5 percent confederal levy on imports in March 2025, from which UEMOA goods are exempt according to the official announcements.
For a shipper the consequence is simple: between Senegal and Mali, originating goods fall under the UEMOA regime. The AfCFTA mainly serves as a safety net should the regional regimes close.
Where the AfCFTA really counts
It counts where no regional agreement exists: between West Africa and Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Cameroon, Kenya or South Africa. A Moroccan product sold in Senegal, a Senegalese product sold in Kenya, an Egyptian product sold in Côte d'Ivoire: that is where the continental preference can make a real difference, once both sides apply it.
It also counts as a direction of travel. The UN Economic Commission for Africa estimates that the flows created by the zone will require two million additional trucks by 2030, as we set out in Africa is two million trucks short. Tariffs come down slowly. The transport the zone needs has to be built now.
How to check a given shipment
Find the six digit Harmonized System code of the product. Everything starts there.
Look it up in the AfCFTA e-Tariff Book. Launched by the Secretariat in June 2022 with the World Customs Organization and the European Union, the online tool shows the rate each country applies and, since late 2024, the product specific rule of origin.
Check that production meets the rule. You need to be able to prove it: invoices for inputs, a description of the process, the place of manufacture. A supplier who cannot document it will not sell you a preferential product.
Get the certificate before shipment, never after.
Ask the forwarder at destination whether customs applies it in practice. The first shipment under a new regime at a given border post often brings surprises.
Compare with the regional regime. If UEMOA or ECOWAS gives a better result, that is the certificate you need.
What we do
For every file that crosses a border, we check the applicable preferential regime and the origin documents before shipment. We do not promise duty free entry without confirming it with the customs office concerned, because a forgotten duty always surfaces at the worst moment: truck stopped, cargo waiting, customer on the phone.
If you are preparing a first shipment to an African country outside your regional zone, send us the product, its tariff code and the destination. We will tell you what you will actually pay.
Read next: importing into Senegal as a foreign company and due diligence on an African supplier.
Sources: tralac, status of AfCFTA ratification, updated 7 September 2026; tralac, AfCFTA frequently asked questions, updated May 2025 (liberalisation modalities, outstanding rules of origin, Guided Trade Initiative, start of trading); ECOWAS Commission press statement of 29 January 2025 (transitional measures after the withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger); Alliance of Sahel States announcements of March 2025, reported by the regional press (0.5 percent confederal levy); World Customs Organization, December 2024 (e-Tariff Book update); UN Economic Commission for Africa (truck requirements under the AfCFTA).