A shipment does not get AfCFTA duty-free treatment because both countries signed the agreement. It gets it because you filed a valid Certificate of Origin against a tariff line the destination has actually liberalised. Here is how the paperwork works, and where it fails.
<p class="lead"><strong>An AfCFTA Certificate of Origin is the document that turns a signed trade agreement into an actual duty saving at a border post — and without it you pay the normal rate, no matter who ratified what.</strong> More than 40 African countries now issue the certificate. To get one you have to show your goods meet a rule of origin for their specific tariff line, and to use one you have to be shipping into a country that has liberalised that line in its own schedule. This guide covers both halves, because exporters routinely satisfy the first and get caught by the second.</p> <h2>What does an AfCFTA Certificate of Origin actually do?</h2> <p>It is a customs declaration, not a trade licence. It states that the goods on a specific invoice originate in an AfCFTA State Party under the rules in Annex 2 of the Protocol on Trade in Goods, and it is what the importing customs authority stamps against to apply the preferential rate instead of the most-favoured-nation rate.</p> <p>Three consequences follow, and each one catches exporters:</p> <ul> <li>It is <strong>per consignment</strong>, tied to an invoice and a tariff line — not a status your company holds.</li> <li