For more than a decade, trade in products between Côte d'Ivoire and EU countries has been growing steadily, thanks to the conclusion in 2007 of an Interim Economic Partnership Agreement, APEi.
This partnership allows Ivorian exports to enter the European market duty-free without interruption. And in return, all products of European origin concerned by the 1055 tariff lines are admitted to Côte d'Ivoire without customs duty.
This Ivorian-European deal has allowed the EU to remain Côte d'Ivoire's largest trading partner with 27% of total imports and 34% of total exports.
In 2019, Côte d'Ivoire imported goods worth CFAF 1733.4 billion from the EU, an increase of CFAF 10.5 billion compared to 2018. This surge in European imports to Côte d'Ivoire in 2019 is driven in particular by wheat and meslin, tobacco, pharmaceutical products and food preparations based on flour.
As for Côte d'Ivoire's exports to the EU, they were worth CFAF 2,689.4 billion in 2019, an increase of CFAF 12.4 billion compared to 2018. This increase is mainly due to higher exports of raw and processed cocoa and fruit and nuts. Exports of cocoa paste, butter and powder, as well as chocolate have continuously evolved in recent years.
"The export of these products has been supported by the creation of a local agro-industry promoting a clear increase in chocolate by 412%, from 2010 to 2019. This Partnership Agreement is for the Government a factor of development by promoting the dynamics of transformation of our agricultural products", informs Albert FLINDE, Minister of African Integration and Ivorians Abroad.
As the main beneficiary of this agreement, the private sector welcomes this instrument for the development and competitiveness of Ivorian companies. And wants it to be extended to the United Kingdom, which left the EU through Brexit.
"Show the same agility done with the EU to preserve our preferential access to the European market" invited Stéphane Aka-Anghui, Executive Director of the General Confederation of Enterprises of Côte d'Ivoire, to the ministries in charge of the issue.
Not without considering it "essential that companies be informed of the consequences of the implementation of this first phase of tariff dismantling so that they maximize the benefit they could derive from the IEPA and minimize the risks".