The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has completed integrating its customs data exchange system with the East African Community Single Customs Territory.

Beginning November 28, the country will join Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda on the centralised customs platform.

The Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) said that despite language challenges, Kinshasa has conformed and developed the system to address challenges related to data and information exchange to ensure more efficient trade facilitation between EAC states.

The NCTTA facilitates transit cargo between the Kenyan Port of Mombasa and Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan.

NCTTCA executive director John Deng said integrating a language translator in the system has been one of the hinderances to speedyintegration.

South Sudan is also in the process of developing its system with support from the World Bank, which has offered $2.6 million to facilitate the process to speedy cargo documentation and reduce queues at the borders.“The planned system integration will enhance data exchange between customs administrations, effectively addressing non-tariff barriers that hinder trade. By facilitating seamless information sharing, the initiative will reduce fraud, improve revenue collection, and significantly cut down transit times,” Mr Deng said.

Under the model, officers of the revenue authorities of each EAC country are stationed at the borders and process customs taxes and clear goods that are destined for their country.

Cargo is therefore checked at the point of entry, and possibly also at the border, for verification. Critical to the operationalisation was the interconnectivity of customs systems, which was done on a bilateral basis to enable real-time information sharing and transmission of notifications between the destination and first points of entry.

In 2021, a project was launched to create a Single Customs Territory centralised platform to liberalise intra-regional trade in goods on the basis of mutually beneficial trade arrangements among the partner states.

DRC’s integration now leaves Burundi, South Sudan and Somalia, whose integration is at different stages of internalising the protocols of both the Customs Union and the Common Market.

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