Duty is the line item buyers forget until it eats the margin. Three shifts this year have materially changed which origin makes sense for African importers.
Duty is a sourcing decision, not a paperwork one
A five-point duty difference between two origins outweighs almost any factory-gate saving you can negotiate. Yet most buyers pick the factory first and discover the tariff later, when the declaration is already filed.
Landed cost — unit price, freight, duty, clearance and inland — is the only number worth comparing. We quote it that way from the first RFQ.
Three shifts worth acting on
Each of these changed the arithmetic for at least one product category we handle regularly.
AfCFTA schedules deepening
Progressive tariff elimination between member states keeps widening the advantage of intra-African sourcing for processed goods — particularly packaging, building materials and agro-processing inputs.
Steel safeguard duties
Several West African markets have extended safeguard measures on flat-rolled products. Origin now matters more than mill price for coil and sheet.
Solar component exemptions
Renewable-energy equipment continues to attract duty relief across East Africa, which has pulled PV module sourcing decisively toward direct factory import.
How we track it
Our desk maintains HS-code level duty tables for every market we ship into and re-checks them before each quotation. When a rate moves against a lane you use, you hear it from us before it appears on your declaration.