Import and export operations are strongly influenced by the country’s trade environment, particularly by trade policy and trade arrangements negotiated with various bilateral, regional and multilateral partners.
Trade Policy
Cameroon’s trade policy is governed by three major legal instruments, notably: Law No. 90 031 of 10 August 1990 governing commercial activity in Cameroon; Law No. 2015 of 18 April 2015 laying down the conditions for the exercise of commercial activities; and the Law of 18 April 2016 governing foreign trade, which defines the specific rules applicable to the exercise of foreign trade in Cameroon.
The Ministry of Trade (MinCommerce) is responsible for defining, implementing and evaluating trade policy. The Ministry of Trade and Industry works in consultation with many other ministries, including those responsible for finance (MINFI), agriculture (MINADER), industry (MINIMDT) and the economy (MINEPAT). The Ministry of Finance is responsible, among other things, for drawing up and implementing fiscal policy, including customs policy, and as such plays a major role in guiding trade policy. The Directorate General of Customs is in charge of administering and enforcing customs regulations.
The «Vision 2035» and the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (GESP, 2009), which is its medium-term operational framework, give pride of place to trade, which is seen as a powerful lever for creating wealth and promoting development. The Government’s trade development objectives are, at the national level, to ensure regular supplies to the domestic market under conditions of healthy competition and, at the international level, to seek out new markets for Cameroonian goods and services, especially those with high added value. The Government’s trade policy objectives also include African trade integration, mainly with Nigeria and within the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), and at continental level within the framework of the agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The Government has taken steps to reform its trade policy, further liberalise economic activities, strengthen dialogue and partnership with the private sector through concerted management of the economy, and create a competitive environment in various sectors. As part of this liberalisation process, the following measures have been taken:
- Removal of non-tariff barriers, in particular by eliminating quantitative import restrictions and import and export licences and approvals;
- Reorganisation of the general price regime, in particular by introducing:
a) Freedom to set prices and trade margins,
b) Control and prevention of anti-competitive practices,
c) Measures to ensure fairness in commercial transactions, including metrological controls, suppression of discriminatory sales, refusal to sell, holding of speculative stocks, conditional sales, and
d) Enactment of legislation on dumping and competition, with the aim of promoting healthy and fair competition;
- Reorganisation of tax and customs regimes to bring them into line with the sub-regional integration programme adopted by CEMAC;
- Disengagement of the State from the commercial sectors of the economy and the establishment of regulatory agencies in the following sectors: electricity supply, telecommunications, hydrocarbons, public contracts, aeronautics and the port sector.
All these liberalisation measures have led to sectoral reforms in the monetary, tax, foreign exchange, insurance, labour, telecommunications and transport sectors. In particular, the tax and customs reform adopted by the CEMAC states can be considered the most important of all those introduced since 1994. Its aim was to harmonise tax and customs policies, consolidate public finances, broaden the tax base and abolish exemptions, with a view to returning to the path of sustained and sustainable growth. At national level, the appropriate legislation has been adopted to implement this reform at the customs level. The reform is thus characterised by:
• Simplification of the common external tariff by dividing imported goods into four categories with a customs duty comprised between 5% and 30%;
• Substantial reduction in cumulative tax and customs duties;
• The adoption of a generalised preferential tariff, whose rate has been zero since 1998, to encourage trade between CEMAC states.
In 1999, with the assistance of the IMF and the World Bank, Cameroon embarked on a programme to reform and modernise its customs administration. Some of the key reform initiatives include the launch of the GUCE (Single window for foreign trade operations) and the securing of the computerised system for managing customs operations, which has been in place since 1984. Cameroon previously had a semi-computerised system, but since 2002 it has been gradually replacing the PAGODE system with the Automated System for Customs Data Processing (ASYCUDA ++). As a result, ASYCUDA has significantly reduced customs clearance times, increased customs revenues, provided statistics on foreign trade and helped to combat customs fraud, smuggling and counterfeiting. With a view to improving the customs clearance system, Cameroon has opted for another system, the Cameroon custom information system (CAMCIS), which is more appropriate to its environment and which became operational on 1 January 2020.
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