MINDFUL of Article 6 of the ECOWAS Treaty establishing the Council of Ministers and determining its composition and functions ;

MINDFUL of Articles 12, 13, 14, 15, 23 and 25 of the said Treaty on trade regimes ;

MINDFUL of Decision A/DEC.18/5/80 of the 28^th May, 1980 of the Authority of Heads of State and Government relating to the liberalisation of trade in industrial products and the subsequent modifications to the text, and particularly Decision A/DEC.1/5/83 of 30^th May, 1983 of the Authority of Heads of State and Government relating to the adoption and implementation of a single Trade Liberalisation Scheme for industrial products originating from Member States of the Community ;

MINDFUL of Decision A/DEC.19/5/80 of 28^th May, 1980 of the Authority of Heads of State and Government relating to the application of compensation procedures for loss of revenue suffered by ECOWAS Member States as a result of intra-Community trade liberalisation ;

MINDFUL of Decision C/DEC.3/5/80 of 25^th May, 1980 of the Council of Ministers relating to the proof and verification of the Community origin of products, and procedures relating to the movement of goods within the Community ;

MINDFUL of Decision C/DEC.3/11/82 of 17^th November, 1982 of the Council of Ministers relating to the coding of ECOWAS customs, statistical and tax regimes ;

MINDFUL of Decision C/DEC.2/6/86 of 30^th June, 1986 of the Council of Ministers relating to the establishment of ECOWAS Community Computer Centre for the automatic processing of the customs, statistical, economic and financial data of Member States and the assessment of compensation for revenue loss suffered by the said States as a result of intra-Community trade liberalisation ;

ON THE RECOMMENDATION of the Trade, Customs, Immigration, Money and Payments Commission at its meeting of 25^th to 31^st March 1986 in Lagos ;

The provisions of the text attached to this Decision relating to the Rules and Regulations governing procedures for the centralisation of information and data control for the purpose of assessing loss of revenue suffered by Member States, as a result of the application of the intra-Community trade liberalisation programme, are hereby adopted for ECOWAS.

Member States shall, at national level, adopt all necessary measures with a view to diligently implementing the said Rules and Regulations and shall forward to the Executive Secretariat the relevant statutory instruments.

This Decision shall enter into force upon signature and shall be published in the Official Journal of the Community and in the National Gazette of each Member State.

The present Rules and Regulations are within the framework of the automatic processing of customs and statistical data relating to the external trade of ECOWAS Member States by the Community Computer Centre.

1. In application of the provisions of Article 23 of the ECOWAS Treaty demanding that Member States take all necessary measures for the harmonisation of their customs regulations and formalities ;
2. In conformity with the provisions of the following Decisions :

• Decision A/DEC.19/5/80 of 28^th May, 1980, of the Authority of Heads of State and Government relating to the application of compensation procedures for loss of revenue suffered by Member States as a result of intra-Community trade liberalisation ;

• Decision C/DEC.7/11/79 of the Council of Ministers relating to the programme on trade liberalisation, co-operation and related problems ;

• Decision C/DEC.3/11/82 of 17^th November, 1982, of the Council of Ministers relating to the Rules and Regulations on the coding of ECOWAS customs, statistical and tax regimes ;

The Rules and Regulations on the coding of customs, statistical and tax regimes which are the subject of Decision C/DEC.3/12/82 of 17^th November, 1982, quoted above, have set certain compulsory norms for the collection of information concerning the Community, which will make it possible to assess the loss of revenue to be compensated and draw up statistics on external trade ; it has been found necessary to complete its text with the present Rules and Regulations which aim at determining and establishing a homogeneous and uniform procedure applicable throughout the Community to facilitate the centralisation of information, the verification of basic data and the assessment of loss of revenue to be compensated, suffered by Member States as a result of the implementation of the intra-Community trade liberalisation programme.

Basic information is any information necessary for the assembling of statistical and accounting data base for the assessment of compensations.

ECOWAS Member States shall make the basic information necessary for the development of data processing available to the Community Computer Centre.

The basic statistics file, known as the ECOWAS file, is an abstract of the file on commercial transactions recorded by customs in each Member State. This file, which is compiled monthly, contains the following information for every customs declaration :

• Code of country where goods are cleared ;
• Code of customs clearance office ;
• Registration number of declaration ;
• Date of registration of declaration ;
• ECOWAS tariff nomenclature ;
• Country of origin of goods ;
• Country of destination ;
• Country from which goods are arriving ;
• Customs regime ;
• Nature of transportation ;
• Nationality of means of transport ;
• Gross weight ;
• Net weight ;
• Quantity of additional units ;
• Customs value of goods ;
• Number of duties ;
• Duties paid (number of entries tallies with number of duties payable on the product concerned) ;
• Tax code ;
• Taxable base code ;
• Tax base ;
• Tax rate ;
• Amount received ;
• Number of taxes.

Normal duties payable (number of entries tallies with number of normal taxes payable on the product) :

• Tax code
• Taxable base code
• Tax rate
• Tax base
• Amount due

The items of information must be written out for each article declared.

1. The monthly ECOWAS files shall be forwarded to the Centre as shall hereafter be specified, together with a checklist to be drawn up as specified in Annex 1.
2. Basic information on customs declarations on imports and exports, for intra and extra-Community trade, shall also be forwarded to the Centre.

1. Statistical information shall be transmitted at the end of each month by the Customs Headquarters of each Member State.
2. For Member States equipped with ASYCUDA software, information shall be sent through the telecommunications network or recorded on the floppy disk automatically produced by the computer, and accompanied by a checklist.
3. For Member States with a different computer system, information may be sent by any means (recorded tape, copy of customs declaration, tele-transmission etc) and each case shall be examined for compatibility.
4. The information sent in monthly from Member States of the Community is combined, checked and organised in data bases in the Computer Centre.

Data processing will be separately analysed. The definition of data processing and organisation will be based on a specific analysis and on detailed organic analysis.

The files from the different Member States will be combined, checked, and the resultant information organised in statistical data bases.

The centre will publish statements of the assessment of financial compensations following the pattern shown in the diagrams annexed to this document, at intervals which will be fixed at a later date by the Executive Secretary.

Any modification to the present Rules and Regulations, at the request of either a Member State or the Executive Secretariat, must be examined by the Trade, Customs, Immigration, Money and Payments Commission to ensure overall harmonisation within the Community.

1. Assembly of a monthly ECOWAS file
1. Publication of a checklist (Annex 1)

Ex-Telecommunications Network Via Telecommunication Network

3. Forwarding of magnetic disk file 3. Forwarding of checklist

4. Network transmission :

- data ECOWAS File

- Checklist file

Combination of files

Data checking

Updating of ECOWAS statistical data base

Data processing

Publication of results

checklist Statement of Statements of Assessment of

according to gross loss consolidated contributions

countries loss

Country............................ Month.......................... 19................

TOTAL VALUE :.......................................................................................................……….

TOTAL DUTIES PAID :...........................................................................................………..

TOTAL NORMAL DUTIES :.....................................................................................……….

ESTIMATE OF GROSS REVENUE LOSS :..............................................................……….

1. Customs clearance office code
1. Customs regime applied
2. Customs declaration number
3. Origin of goods
4. ECOWAS tariff nomenclature
5. Customs value
6. Total duties paid on goods
7. Total normal duties due

/ /

FROM.....................TO....................19.....

• Overall gross revenue loss is expressed in thousands of WAUA ;
• The statement may also be published according to products and groups of product using ECOWAS nomenclature ;
• The horizontal total shows the gross revenue loss suffered by one Member State vis-à-vis the other Member State of the Community ;
• The vertical shows the gross revenue loss suffered by all Member States vis-à-vis the Member State named.

COUNTRY :….................................. DATE :.................…………… 19...

PRODUCTS GROSS LOSS OTHER INDIVIDUAL NET LOSS

COUNTRY REVENUE LOSSES

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

……………. BENIN .................. +..................

BURKINA FASO .................. -...................

CAPE VERDE .................. +..................

GUINEA .................. -...................

GUINEA BISSAU .................. +..................

SUB-TOTAL

................ ....................................... +..................

GRAND TOTAL ................ ....................... +.................

1. The statement of consolidated compensations may be published according to single products ECOWAS nomenclature, groups of products, (NCD) or all products ;
2. Gross revenue loss suffered vis-à-vis other Member States of the Community ;
3. Name of other country ;
4. Individual revenue losses are the gross amount of losses suffered by each Member State vis-à-vis the Member State named ;
5. Net loss = gross loss = individual losses.