Practical Guide

When can the RECOS be used?

The RECOS can be used by small traders whether or not they are nationals of COMESA countries when:

  1. They import or export goods whose value per lot is equal to or less than the RECOS threshold of 2000 US dollars.
  2. Their goods appear on the common lists of products eligible for RECOS, and
  3. These are goods that traders will sell

Travelers with no goods for sale should not use RECOS.

Traders whose consignments of goods exceed US$2,000 and who would like to benefit from the exemption of customs duties on goods must use the COMESA Certificate of Origin and the usual customs documents.

Assistance for Women by CN-ACT

Women in particular benefit from assistance on:

  • Information on market opportunities
  • Rights and Obligations in Cross-Border Trade
  • Gender respect in customs processes
  • Advocacy at borders so that women are checked or searched by other women to avoid any form of harassment against women.

Cross-border trade between the DRC and neighboring countries

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) shares 9165 km of its borders with 9 countries: Angola, Burundi, Congo Brazzaville, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and Zambia.

Being a member of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa – COMESA , the DRC has since 2016 signed the small cross-border trade agreement called the COMESA-RECOS Simplified Trade Regime to allow small cross-border traders to benefit from duty exemptions customs duty on goods appearing on the common lists of products eligible for RECOS and whose value does not exceed 2000 US dollars.

This approach eliminates the problems that prevented these small traders from benefiting from trade with other COMESA countries (see the list of member countries) . But a problem arises at the level of the application of the common lists of products insofar as the DRC cannot export manufactured products but can only import them (from Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda).

RECOS is a program launched by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa to help small cross-border traders, most of whom are women, to increase the size of their businesses.

The RECOS (COMESA Simplified Trade Regime) aims to simplify customs clearance procedures and reduce the cost of trade transactions by allowing the goods of these small traders to benefit from the elimination of customs duties and COMESA preferential treatment. on the goods appearing on the common lists.