Addis Ababa, 24 June 2019 (ECA) -The operationalisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and its implications for the Horn of Africa, particularly in terms of industrialization, economic diversification and job creation, will be the focus of a Regional Trade Forum on 27-28 June in Addis Ababa. The Forum aims to provide a unique platform for all stakeholders, from policy makers to private sector actors, academics and civil society organisations, to explore the extent to which the AfCFTA can be a game changer in the Horn and help address its specific trade and competitiveness challenges. Participants are expected to come up with recommendations on how to use the AfCFTA as a policy tool to create positive change and impact in the sub-region as well as advancing gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. specific and concrete transboundary issues, such as interconnected power grids, shipping, transport related logistics corridors, and mining and development projects. The Regional Trade Forum is co-organized by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) with the African Union Commission and the Government of Ethiopia, in partnership with the IGAD Secretariat, Afreximbank, TradeMark Africa and the Ethiopian Airlines Group. Under the general theme of “AfCFTA Ratification and Implementation: Breaking Down Geographical, Logistical and Regulatory Barriers to Trade and Investment in the Horn to Boost Industrialisation – A Focus on the Pharmaceutical Industry”, the forum will include plenaries and roundtables organized around nine topics: The AfCFTA: Boosting Competitiveness and Job Creation in the Horn of Africa – pharmaceuticals as...

Regional countries are set to increase market access for their agricultural products following the commencement of a new capacity building project to mainstream sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) priorities into national policies. The project is titled: ‘Mainstreaming SPS capacity building into the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and other National Policy Frameworks to Enhance Market Access’. The project has a budget of US$ 464,075 out of which US$ 390,075 is provided by the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) a World Trade Organization (WTO) agency. The project covers five countries that are members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA); Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Malawi. It is being implemented under the ‘Prioritizing SPS Investments for Market Access (P-IMA) framework, an initiative of the STDF. Kenya is the second country after Uganda, to start implementing the project with the inception meeting and high-level stakeholder dialogue taking place yesterday followed by training on P-IMA from today to Thursday this week in Nairobi. The events bring together experts from the private sector, relevant public sector departments and institutions of government to build consensus on the most critical SPS priorities and investments. The P-IMA framework is an evidence-based approach to inform and improve SPS planning and decision-making processes. It helps to link SPS investments to public policy goals including export growth, agricultural productivity, and poverty reduction. Currently, intra COMESA trade remains low relative to other regions, at around 11% of total COMESA exports with the majority of traded products...

THE East African Business Council and his development partners convened a two-day meeting in Nairobi, Kenya this weekend to deliberate on liberalisation of goods and services in a bid to repositioning the EAC region in light of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Over 40 industry and business experts from the region attended the meeting organised also by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), International Trade Centre (ITC) and TradeMark Africa. We find the Nairobi forum has come at the most opportune time as without strategies the region will not be able to benefit fully from the agreement covering a market of 1.2bn people with a combined GDP of 2.5 trillion US dollars. The AfCFTA aims to establish a single continental market for goods and services, and ease the free movement of businesspeople and investment across the continent. Ultimately, the deal seeks to boost intra-regional trade levels, promote investment and job creation, and help transform the economic landscape of the continent in favour of higher value added and wealth generation. Signatory countries will need to drop 90 per cent of their tariffs for imports from other African states. According to the United Nations, this could boost intra-African trade by 52.3 per cent. And once countries drop their remaining tariffs, which they will be allowed to maintain for a decade in order to protect key industries, the U.N. says intra-African trade will double. However all these will not drop like manna from heaven. There will be challenges to navigate before...

  Manchester-based planning, design, architecture and engineering team FBW Group is advising an international consortium backed by $400m on the buildability of sites in East Africa to boost trade across the continent. FBW is part of the consortium led by international development consulting company IPE Global which is currently carrying out feasibility studies centred on the creation of special ‘trade and logistics clusters’ near borders and points of entry in countries across East Africa. Aid-for-trade organisation TradeMark ... You can carry on reading TheBusinessDesk.com for free, but you have reached the maximum number of pages an unregistered user can view. Sources : TheBusinessDesk

Kigali, 22 June 2019 (ECA) - When the African Continental Free Trade Area is implemented, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) estimates an increase of intra-African exports of Eastern Africa by over US$ 1 billion. For Rwanda, much of that would be explained by increased trade with its neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo. On Friday 21st June, in collaboration with ECA and Trademark East Africa, Rwanda's Private Sector Federation (PSF) organized a meeting to discuss the potential benefits from the AfCFTA and how Rwandan companies could take advantage of the new opportunities. Andrew Mold, Acting Director of ECA in Eastern Africa, revealed preliminary simulation results showing that Rwandan exports to DRC would increase by more than USD 56 million, once the AfCFTA was fully implemented. At a regional level, he stressed that the beneficiary sectors would principally be the employment-creating sectors like processed foods, light manufacturing and textiles, creating an additional two million jobs in Eastern Africa. Stephen Ruzibiza, the Chief Executive Officer of PSF, encouraged business owners and entrepreneurs to take advantage of the potential 1.2 billion customers and work together as they identify their future areas of growth. "Collectively, we have enormous potential to tap into this continental market," he said. The participants also discussed how AfCFTA can provide a platform for a common approach to African trade relations with other countries. According to Mold, Africa currently has 512 Bilateral Investment Treaties with other countries, of which 44 are Intra- African. Each one of these has...

Successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement could be dependent on aspects such as provisions where countries grant each other trade preferences for goods produced in Africa rather than imports from outside the continent. With the agreement already in force since May after meeting the minimum required ratifications. Trade experts say that by scrapping import and tariffs and quotas among themselves on most traded goods, African countries would be well placed to make the most competitive advantage of firms within the Free Trade Area. The provision, known as ‘Rules of Origin,’ is currently under negotiations with experts saying it is likely to be a huge determinant for the success of AfCFTA. If well effected, the provision will see African products feature across the continent and becoming more competitive. The provision will go beyond allowing goods from the continent access to markets to ensuring competitiveness. But a recent study by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development showed that many of the AfCFTA gains could be undermined if rules of origin are not appropriately designed and enforced to support preferential trade liberalisation. For instance, if the provision of rules of origin are favourable and ideal, East Africa’s tea exports to the rest of the continent, especially Northern Africa would likely become more competitive. Between 2015 and 2017, about 43 per cent of the imports to Africa were shipped from China while 17 per cent was from India and Sri Lanka. Well-designed preferential trade liberalisation could see East African...

Heavy trucks from Kenya and Uganda will have to wait a little longer before they could use the Gatuna One Stop Border Post (OSBP) after the trial period that saw the border post reopen for 10 days for big trucks expired. No time has been given as to when the busiest border post linking Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya will reopen but sources say it will take approximately a month for the contractor on the Rwandan side to do final touches before a decision to fully operationalize the border post is made. On June 7, Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) announced that the border post located on the northern frontier with Uganda was going to be reopened to heavy trucks following its closure in March this year to allow construction of One Stop Border Post facilities. The closure led to the diversion of heavy trucks headed to and out of Rwanda to Kagitumba Mirama Hills One Stop Border Post and Cyanika –a move which was decried by Ugandan traders who termed it as ‘political sabotage’ linked to tensions between the two countries. Rwanda maintains that the closure is aimed at fast tracking construction works, which Rwanda Transport Development Agency (RTDA) said are going as planned, with the contractor given more time to correct a few things identified during the trial and inspection period, ahead of planned reopening. The State Minister in Charge of the East African Community (EAC) Olivier Nduhungirehe told KT Press that “the One Stop Border Post will of course be re-opened...

Let us first deal with the big cynical view that was among the first to emerge when news came that the Democratic Republic of Congo has applied to join the East African Community: That Rwanda’s leadership wants to score a big point by bringing the giant state into the fold during its chairmanship. Well, if Rwanda is selfishly seeking to boost its stature by recruiting DRC, then that kind of selfishness, which stands to benefit 275 million people (EAC has 193 million), should be welcomed. What all members should do is to ensure that the spirit and letter of the Community charter are strictly adhered to. There is also the little matter of whether DRC is in East Africa. Indeed, it shares borders with five members of the Community – South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. That is more than any other of the members. In that respect, DRC is the most qualified country to join the EAC. There are always two sides to a coin. Right now the image of the EAC is less than bright, featuring Rwanda in the chair having uneasy relations with Uganda and Burundi; the Community Secretariat in Arusha drowning in financial scandals and most member states not remitting their contributions promptly. But this is a phase that shouldn’t stifle EAC’s ambition to be a leading light for regional integration. Admitting Congo makes a big aspirational statement and sets higher targets for the continent. The inclusion of DRC, even the process of considering its...

The Sh3 billion face-lift of Kisumu Port has begun in earnest as the government seeks to restore the once vibrant East Africa hub to its glory days. The renovation of the port is meant to allow bigger vessels to dock in Kisumu to enhance trade with neighbouring countries. The renovated port is expected to be officially commissioned by President Uhuru Kenyatta, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Felix Tshisekedi of DR Congo in August. Interior CS Fred Matiangi toured the facility on Friday and said it will create more employment and business opportunities. The government has already released Sh500 million for the face-lift with the remaining Sh2.5 billion to be pumped in soon. Matiangi toured the port to inspect ongoing works. He is expected in another tour in the company of Transport CS James Macharia in the next two weeks. “The President has ordered that we pull out all the stop, including different authorities like Kenya Railways, Kenya Ports Authority, National Youth Service, Kenya Navy amongst others, so that we clean up this place. it will be revamped and people will get employed,” Matiang'i said. On June 14, President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga took a discreet, impromptu tour of the port to check progress of construction works. the two leaders were also at the port in January. “We were here with the President and Raila Odinga who told us that this place was vibrant in the early years but neglection led to its poor state today. The ongoing...

As ratification of the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) moves forward slowly, a landmark free trade agreement has been signed several thousand miles away on the continent of Africa. While 52 African nations signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), to date 24 have ratified the agreement (22 were needed to actually bring the agreement into force). The AfCFTA breaks new ground and ushers the continent towards being a more seamless and frictionless trade region. Though it could be argued that these African nations are largely underdeveloped, the collective GDP of all the 55 states in Africa accounts for a staggering $3 trillion, making it the fifth-largest trade front in the world. This is excellent news for the U.S., as the African nations coalescing into a single trade region will greatly help in expediting unified trade deals, rather than developing tailor-made trade agreements with individual countries across the continent. The timing of this development also suits U.S. interests, coming at a time when there is an escalation of trade tariff exchanges between the U.S. and China. Over the last decade, Africa has become the hotspot for investment, with superpowers like Russia and China channeling billions of dollars to gain a strategic foothold on the continent. Beijing has been especially aggressive, investing heavily in Africa to widen its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that aims at reviving the ancient Silk Route and also extend much further to account for all major trading partners of China. The U.S. has accused China of using...