(Business in Cameroon) - In January-February 2021, the Cameroonian customs administration collected XAF119 billion of customs revenues. This was revealed, on March 3, 2021, during the coordination videoconference of officials of the central and decentralized services of the Directorate General of Customs. This performance is up by over XAF27 billion compared to the XAF91.5 billion collected during the same period in 2020.
This performance was achieved despite the launch, on January 1, 2021, of the 5th phase of the tariff dismantling in the framework of the economic partnership agreement with the European Union (EU). During this phase, customs duties on products belonging to the third category (products like cars, motorcycles, fuel, and cement) have been reduced by 10%. Also, the launch of this phase brings to 60% the percentage of customs duties dismantled for products in the second category and 100% for products in the first category.
According to experts, this increase in Cameroon’s customs revenue, despite the rise in revenue shortfalls caused by the implementation of the above-mentioned partnership agreement, is due to the diversification initiated by Cameroon in recent years. Indeed, although the European Union is still Cameroon’s leading economic partner (with 39.7% of Cameroon’s overall exports shipped to the EU in 2018), the country is gradually boosting its trade relations with China, which become Cameroon’s leading bilateral partner in 2013.
BRM