When was ecowas form

With this in place, ECOWAS is now pre-occupied with the implementation of critical and strategic programmes that will deepen cohesion and progressively eliminate identified barriers to full integration as envisaged. Considerable efforts have now been made in harmonising macroeconomic policies and private sector promotion towards achieving economic integration.

Share on :. The 1. The cross-border migration of women as traders and business persons places them as potential champions for promoting integration. This reality needs to be fully exploited.

The diverse socio-cultural dimension of development should be a necessary building block for establishing peace and security in the region.

Until the entry into force of the said Protocol, the Authority shall continue to adopt its decisions by consensus. Decisions of the Authority shall be binding on the Member States and institutions of the Community, without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 3 of Article 15 of this Treaty.

The Executive Secretary shall publish the decisions thirty 30 days after the date of their signature by the Chairman of Authority. Such decisions shall automatically enter into force sixty 60 days after the date of their publication in the Official Journal of the Community. Decisions shall be published in the National Gazette of each Member State within the period stipulated in paragraph 6 of this Article.

There is hereby established a Council of Ministers of the Community. Council shall be responsible for the functioning and development of the Community.

To this end, unless otherwise provided in this Treaty or a Protocol, Council shall:. The Council shall meet at least twice a year in ordinary session. One of such sessions shall immediately precede the ordinary session of the Authority. An extraordinary session may be convened by the Chairman of Council or at the request of a Member State provided that such request is supported by a simple majority of the Member States.

Unless otherwise provided in this Treaty regulations of the Council shall be adopted, depending on the subject matter under consideration, by unanimity, consensus or by a two-thirds majority of Member States, in accordance with the Protocol referred to in Article 9 paragraph 3 of this Treaty.

Until the entry into force of the said Protocol, the Council shall continue to adopt its regulations by consensus. Regulations of the Council shall be binding on institutions under its authority. They shall be binding on Member States after their approval by the Authority. However, in the case of regulations made pursuant to a delegation of powers by the Authority in accordance with paragraph 3 f of Article 7 of this Treaty, they shall be binding forthwith.

Regulations shall be published and shall enter into force within the same period and under the same conditions stipulated in paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 of Article 9 of this Treaty. There is hereby established a Parliament of the Community. The method of election of the Members of the Community Parliament, its composition. There is hereby established an Economic and Social Council which shall have an advisory role and whose composition shall include representatives of the various categories of economic and social activity.

The composition, functions and organization of the Economic and Social Council shall be defined in a Protocol relating thereto. There is hereby established a Court of Justice of the Community. The status, composition, powers, procedure and other issues concerning the Court of Justice shall be as set out in a Protocol relating thereto.

The Court of Justice shall carry out the functions assigned to it independently of the Member States and the institutions of the Community. Judgements of the Court of Justice shall be binding on the Member States, the Institutions of the Community and on individuals and corporate bodies. There is hereby established an Arbitration Tribunal of the Community.

The status, composition, powers, procedure and other issues concerning the Arbitration Tribunal shall be as set out in a Protocol relating thereto.

There is hereby established an Executive Secretariat of the Community. The Secretariat shall be headed by the Executive Secretary assisted by Deputy Executive Secretaries and such other staff as may be required for the smooth functioning of the Community.

The Executive Secretary shall be appointed by the Authority for a four-year term renewable only once for another four-year period. He can only be removed from office by the Authority upon its own initiative or on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers. The Ministerial Committee on the Selection and Evaluation of the Performance of Statutory Appointees shall evaluate the three 3 candidates nominated by the Member State to which the statutory post has been allocated and make recommendations to the Council of Ministers.

Council shall propose to the Authority the appointment of the candidate adjudged the best. The Executive Secretary shall be a person of proven competence and integrity, with a global vision of political and economic problems and regional integration.

The Deputy Executive Secretaries and other Statutory Appointees shall be appointed by the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the Ministerial Committee on the Selection and Evaluation of the Performance of Statutory Appointees following the evaluation of the three 3 candidates nominated by their respective Member States to whom the posts have been allocated.

They shall be appointed for a period of four years renewable only once for a further four-year term. Vacancies shall be advertised in all Member States to which statutory posts have been allocated. In appointing professional staff of the community, due regard shall be had, subject to ensuring the highest standards of efficiency and technical competence, to maintaining equitable geographical distribution of posts among nationals of all Member States.

Unless otherwise provided in the Treaty or in a Protocol, the Executive Secretary shall be the chief executive officer of the Community and all its institutions. The Executive Secretary shall direct the activities of the Executive Secretariat and shall, unless otherwise provided in a Protocol, be the legal representative of the Institutions of the Community in their totality.

Without prejudice to the general scope of his responsibilities, the duties of the Executive Secretary shall include:. In the performance of their duties, the Executive Secretary, the Deputy Executive Secretaries, and other staff of the Community shall owe their loyalty entirely and be accountable only to the Community. In this regard, they shall neither seek nor accept. They shall refrain from any activity or any conduct incompatible with their status as international civil servants.

Every Member State undertakes to respect the international character of the office of the Executive Secretary, the Deputy Executive Secretaries, and other staff of the Community and undertakes not to seek to influence them in the performance of their duties.

Member States undertake to cooperate with the Executive Secretariat and other institutions of the Community and to assist them in the discharge of the duties assigned to them under this Treaty. The status, objectives and functions of the fund are defined in the Protocol relating thereto.

There is hereby established the following Technical Commissions:. The Authority may, whenever it deems appropriate, restructure the existing Commissions or establish new Commissions. Each commission shall comprise representatives of each Member State.

Each Commission may, as it deems necessary, set up subsidiary commissions to assist it in carrying out its work. It shall determine the composition of any such subsidiary commission. Meetings Subject to any directives given by the Council, each Commission shall meet as often as necessary. It shall prepare its rules of procedure and submit them to the Council for approval.

Member States shall cooperate in the development of agriculture, forestry, livestock and fisheries in order to:. To this end, and in order to promote the integration, of production structures, Member States shall cooperate in the following fields:. For the purpose of promoting industrial development of Member States and integrating their economies, Member States shall, harmonize their industrialization policies.

In order to create a solid basic for industrialization and promote collective self reliance, Member States shall:. In their cooperation in this field, Member States shall:. Member States shall coordinate and harmonize their policies and programmes in the field of energy.

Member States undertake to protect, preserve and enhance the natural environment of the region and cooperate in the event of natural disasters. To this end, they shall adopt policies, strategies and programmes at national and regional levels and establish appropriate institutions to protect. Member States undertake, individually and collectively, to take every appropriate step to prohibit the importation, transiting, dumping and burying of hazardous and toxic wastes in their respective territories.

They further undertake to adopt all necessary measures to establish a regional dump-watch to prevent the importation, transiting, dumping and burying of hazardous and toxic wastes in the region. Member States shall harmonize and coordinate their policies and programmes in the field of natural resources.

For the purpose of ensuring the harmonious integration of the physical infrastructures of Member States and the promotion and facilitation of the movement of persons, goods and services within the Community. Member States undertake to:. Member States also undertake to encourage the establishment and promotion of joint ventures and Community enterprises and the participation of the private sector in the areas of transport and communications. In the area of postal services, Member States undertake to:.

In the area of telecommunications, Member States shall:. Member States also undertake to encourage the participation of the private sector in offering postal and telecommunications services, as a means of attaining the objectives set out in this Article.

For the purposes of ensuring the harmonious and viable development of tourism within the Community, Member States undertake to:. There shall be progressively established in the course of a period of ten 10 years effective from 1 January as stipulated in Article 54, a Customs Union among the Member States. Within this union, Customs duties or other charges with equivalent effect on Community originating imports shall be eliminated. Quota, quantitative or like restrictions or prohibitions and administrative obstacles to trade among the Member States shall also be removed.

Furthermore, a common external tariff in respect of all goods imported into the Member States from third countries shall be established and maintained. Member States shall reduce and ultimately eliminate Customs duties and any other charges with equivalent effect except duties notified in accordance with Article 40 and other charges which fall within that Article, imposed on or in connection with the importation of goods which are eligible for Community tariff treatment in accordance with Article 38 of this Treaty.

Any such duties or other charges are herein after referred to as "import duties". Community-originating unprocessed goods and traditional handicraft products shall circulate within the region free of all import duties and quantitative restrictions. There shall be no compensation for loss of revenue resulting from the importation of these products.

Member States undertake to eliminate import duties on industrial goods which are eligible for preferential Community tariff treatment in accordance with the decisions of the Authority and Council relating to the liberalization of intra-Community trade in industrial products.

The Authority may at any time, on the recommendation of the Council, decide that any import duties shall be reduced more rapidly or eliminated earlier than stipulated in any previous instrument or decision.

However, the Council shall, not later than one calendar year preceding the date in which such reductions or eliminations come into effect, examine whether such reductions or eliminations shall apply to some or all goods and in respect of some or all the Member States and shall report the result of such examination for the decision of the Authority.

Member States agree to the gradual establishment of a common external tariff in respect of all goods imported into the Member States from third countries in accordance with a schedule to be recommended by the Trade, Customs, Taxation, Statistics, Money and Payments Commission.

Member States shall, in accordance with a schedule to be recommended by the Trade, Customs, Taxation, Statistics, Money and Payments Commission, abolish existing differences in their external Customs tariffs. Member States undertake to apply the common Customs nomenclature and Customs statistical nomenclature adopted by Council. For the purposes of this Treaty, goods shall be accepted as eligible for Community tariff treatment if they have been consigned to the territory of the importing Member States from the territory of another Member State and originate from the Community.

The rules governing products originating from the Community shall be as contained in the relevant Protocols and Decisions of the Community. The Trade, Customs, Taxation, Statistics, Money and Payments Commission shall from time to time examine whether the rules referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article can be amended to make them simpler and more liberal.

In order to ensure their smooth and equitable operation, the Council may from time to time amend them. For the purposes of this Article, trade is said to be deflected if,. Imports of any particular product by a Member State from another Member State increase,. The Council shall keep under review the question of trade deflection and its causes. It shall take such decisions as are necessary, in order to deal with the causes of this deflection. In case of trade deflection to the detriment of a Member State resulting from the abusive reduction or elimination of duties and charges levied by another Member State, the Council shall study the question in order to arrive at a just solution.

Member States shall not apply directly or indirectly to imported goods from any Member State fiscal charges in excess of those applied to like domestic goods or otherwise impose such charges for the effective protection of domestic goods.

Member States shall eliminate all effective internal taxes or other internal charges that are made for the protection of domestic goods not later than four 4 years after the commencement of the trade liberalization scheme referred to in Article 54 of this Treaty. Where by virtue of obligations under an existing contract entered into by a Member State such a Member State is unable to comply with the provisions of this Article, the Member State shall duly notify the Council of this fact and shall not extend or renew such contract at its expiry.

Member States shall eliminate progressively all revenue duties designed to protect domestic goods not later than the end of the period for the application bf the trade liberalization scheme referred to in Article 54 of this Treaty. Member States undertake to av oid double taxation of Community citizens and grant assistance to one another in combating international tax evasion.

The conditions and modalities for granting such assistance shall be as contained in a Double Taxation and Assistance Convention. Except as may be provided for or permitted by this Treaty, Member States undertake to relax gradually and to remove over a maximum period of four 4 years after the launching of the trade liberalization scheme referred to in Article 54, all the then existing quota, quantitative or like restrictions or prohibitions which apply to the import into that State of goods originating in the other Member States and thereafter refrain from imposing any further restrictions or prohibitions.

Whereby virtue of obligations under an existing contract entered into by a Member State such a Member State is unable to comply with the provisions of this Article, the member State shall duly notify Council of this fact and shall not extend or renew such contract at its expiry. The Authority may at any time, on the recommendation of the Council decide that any quota, quantitative or like restrictions or prohibitions shall be relaxed more rapidly or removed earlier than agreed upon under paragraph 1 of this Article.

A Member State may, after having given notice to the Executive Secretary and the other Member States of its intention to do so, introduce or continue to execute restrictions or prohibitions affecting:. Member States shall not so exercise the right to introduce or continue to execute the restrictions or prohibitions referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article as to stultify the free movement of goods envisaged in paragraph 1 of this Article.

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