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Trade agreements signed by Eritrea

Since its independence in 1993, Eritrea has signed various bilateral trade agreements including with Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Turkey.  Eritrea has also joined different Regional Economic Communities in Africa such as COMESA, IGAD and CEN-SAD. 

Eritrea reduced its Most Favored Nation (MFN) duties by 80 percent on imports originating from COMESA Member States, and at the moment it only charges 20% of the MFN duty. It is important to note that the threshold for acceding to the full FTA is 100 percent tariff liberalization coupled with elimination of non-tariff and other technical barriers to trade. 

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) was created in 1996 to succeed the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development that was founded in 1986 to deal with issues related to drought and desertification in the Horn Africa. Eritrea is one of the founding members of IGAD.

Eritrea had also ratified the revised treaty of the CEN-SAD.

How these agreements are beneficial to women in business
    
The tariff reduction for goods originating from COMESA Member States is expected to benefit the potential exporters in general and women in business in particular. Removal of customs duties on exports will enable exporters to be competitive in the regional markets.

Eritrea is one of the beneficiaries from the EU Generalized System of Preference (GSP) scheme. Women engaged in manufacturing and agriculture can benefit from this scheme. 
The EU has introduced REX (Registered Exporters) System. It is a self certification of origin by registered exporters making out so-called statements on origin. The threshold for which an exporter does not need to be registered in the REX System is 6,000 EUR. This means any exporter, manufacturer or trader from the beneficiary countries with export value less than 6,000 EUR is not required to be registered in the system. 

Additional useful information    

The Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, in collaboration with COMESA, organizes different workshops aimed at sensitizing the relevant stakeholders and the private sector on issues related to COMESA programs, Rules of Origin, regional integration and others.