Status of the categorization of the measures of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement by Cameroon

The process of categorizing the measures of the Trade Facilitation Agreement was coordinated by CONAFE, which carried out work leading to the categorization of measures B and C, which was notified to the WTO in accordance with the relevant procedures.
a- Context
The Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) adopted on 7 December 2013 entered into force on 22 February 2017. The implementation of the technical measures prescribed by this Agreement is based on the principle of “Special and Differential Treatment for Developing and Least Developed Country Members”, on the basis of which developing and least-developed countries will freely choose the provisions they will include in each of the categories A, B and C of the Agreement, according to their implementation capacities, as follows:

• Category A contains the provisions that a developing or least-developed country will designate for implementation at the time of entry into force of the agreement, or in the case of a least-developed country, within one year after entry into force;
• Category B contains the provisions that a developing or least-developed country will designate for implementation at a date after a transitional period following the entry into force of the agreement;
• Category C contains the provisions that a developing or least-developed country will designate for implementation at a date after a transitional period following the entry into force of the agreement and requiring the acquisition of implementation capacity through the provision of assistance and support for capacity building.

b- Status of notifications from Cameroon

Category A Measures:
Cameroon notified the Category A measures on 24 May 2016, that is, before the entry
into force of the Trade Facilitation Agreement, in accordance with the provisions of this
instrument.

Category B and C Measures:
The notification of measures B and C was also made and acknowledged by the WTO on 10 July 2019. This notification was made on the basis of the number of measures examined, that is 40, with a specification by category of measure as follows:

• Category A: 2 measures;
• Category B: 18 measures;
• Category C: 20 measures.

Table 7: Summary table of measures and their status in 2019