Head of Government Communication Unit in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, East African, Regional and International Co-operation Ms Mindi Kasiga told journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the move will ensure smooth businesses among traders of the partner states. “We call upon traders and citizens to communicate with my ministry in case they encounter any non tariff barrier in their businesses within the regional bloc”, Ms Kasiga said. She said traders can lodge their complaints related to NTBs through short text messages by sending the word ‘NTB’ to 15593 or through www.tradebarriers.org. Ms Kasiga further noted that for track drivers travelling within the regional bloc can communicate directly to the Police Force through mobile number 0713631780. She, however, reminded traders to observe the required procedures for cross border trade within the EAC market to avoid inconveniences such as loss of goods. “Tanzanian businessmen can conduct trade within the EAC bloc without paying customs duty if they have fulfilled all the requirements approved by the partner states,” she observed. Ms Kasiga further outlined steps to be observed by small scale traders while conducting business in EAC market among them securing Simplified Certificate of Origin (SCO) which is provided for free at the customs border offices. SCO allows customs officials in the destination country not to charge import duty on consignment with the value not exceeding USD 2000. “The simplified certificate of origin is meant for small-scale traders whose goods do not exceed 2,000 US Dollars and they are not required...

The share of intra-EAC trade to the total trade declined to 10.1 per cent from 11.1 per cent between 2013 and 2014. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania continue to dominate intra-East African Community trade even though its value fell from $5.8 billion to $5.63 billion in the same period. Kenya’s total exports to Uganda over the 2011-2015 period stood at $3.28 billion, followed by Tanzania ($1.98 billion), Rwanda ($734.93 million) and Burundi ($303.83 million). Exports to South Sudan, which was admitted to the EAC in March this year stood at $71 million. Intra-EAC trade is mainly dominated by agricultural commodities such as coffee, tea, tobacco, cotton, rice, maize, and wheat flour and manufactured goods such as, cement, petroleum products, textiles, sugar, beer and salt. Uganda remains a key market for Kenya’s exports, according to Kenya’s Economic Survey (2016). Similarly Kenya imported the most goods from Uganda at Ksh81.57 billion ($815 million) in the same period, followed by Tanzania ($748.64 million) and Rwanda ($36.45 million). But major imports came from South Africa, totalling $3.19 billion. Latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that Kenya’s combined exports to Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda  dropped from $69.9 million   in January to $1.56 million in February, before rising to $88.8 million n March. Last year, a study by Kenya’s Ministry of East Africa Community revealed that  the volume of Kenya’s exports to the EAC had fallen sharply largely due to unfair competition from Chinese traders and the country’s unfavourable taxation regime. Unfavourable taxation measures such as...

Rwandan traders are pushing for the removal of all Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) along routes connecting Kigali to the East African coast to ease trade. This was highlighted on Thursday as East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) members met hoteliers, tour operators and transporters in an attempt to grasp the problems the latter face while doing business in the region. NTBs are restrictions that result from prohibitions, conditions, or market requirements that make importation or exportation of products difficult or costly. Transporters said about seven weighbridges exist on the northern corridor – creating unfavorable competition – and are calling for further advocacy. Fred Seka, a transporter, said the central corridor route from Kigali to Dar is still preferred, though longer, as it has only one weighbridge. From Gatuna to Busia, in Uganda, there are four weigh bridges. “A truck from Kigali takes three to four days to reach Dar,” Seka said.  Accessing Dar port an issue Meanwhile, when the chairperson of EALA Rwanda Chapter, MP Patricia Hajabakiga, prodded for details on the situation at the two main EAC ports, Seka also reported challenges regarding Rwandan clearing and forwarding agents getting access. In 2013, Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya agreed to implement a Single Customs Territory (SCT). The SCT agreement was to remove multiple weighbridges, police and customs checks along the Mombasa-Kampala-Kigali route. It would also usher in computerised clearance and electronic tracking and other innovations that would overturn hurdles to free trade. Rwanda may now be in the SCT, Seka...

The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM) and TradeMark Africa (TMA)-supported drive to eliminate non tariff barriers has paid off; businesses are reporting savings in terms of time and cost of transporting goods across regional borders. One person who can testify to this is Ahmed Hamad the Managing Director, SIMERA Transport Rwanda Ltd, a clearing and transport company whose trucks ply the Central Corridor. For the last 15 years, clients have trusted him to deliver goods safe, secure and in good time from Kigali to the Dar es Salaam port and vice versa; but it was not always easy. “It used to take us about 17 days to take cargo from Kigali to the port due to many checkpoints, weighbridges along the way and border delays. Clearing at the border took on average 8-10 hours per truck, and if you reached late you sometimes had to sleep over,” Ahmed says. Ahmed says that time wastage increased transport costs, pushing up the cost of the final product. Regional efforts to fight the Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) led to the formation of National Monitoring Committees (NMCs) on NTBs in the respective member countries, but they faced major challenges on many fronts and remained largely ineffective. Things began looking up when, in 2011, TMA came on board with initiatives to strengthen NMCs across the region and their operational structure, in order to turn them into efficient instruments to identify and eliminate NTBs. According to Vincent Safari, the Coordinator of Rwanda’s NMC for elimination of...

Famous for mountain gorilla and spectacular mountain scenery, Rwanda is set to host the annual Africa Travel Association (ATA) Congress to be taking place in Rwanda’s sprawling city of Kigali November this year. Bearing a theme of “Destination Africa: The Future of African Tourism”, the the ATA’s 41st Congress will be held in Kigali from November 14 to 17, bringing delegates from Africa, United States, Europe and other parts of the world. To be taking place in East Africa for three consecutive years, the ATA 41st Congress is set to focus the East African region as the single tourist destination in Africa and best for combined African safari. ATA 39th Congress was held in Kampala, Uganda in November 2014 and the ATA 40th Congress held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in November last year. It will be the first time for Rwanda to host the ATA Congress and where the delegates will get a unique chance to observe Rwanda’s hospitality with a visit to a selected tourist hotspot in this fast growing African safari destination. Kenya is the first African and the East African state to host the first ATA Congress in 1976 just a year after the association was launched in New York the previous year, 1975, by a group of travel and airline executives. Other ATA Congress events which took place in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi were the ATA's 10th Annual Congress in 1985, ATA's 20th Annual Congress in 1995, ATA's 30th Annual Congress in 2005 and...

The East African Community Competition Authority (EACCA) will be operational from July with a mandate to curb unfair trade practices in the region and protect consumers from substandard goods. The authority will restrict trade practices and transactions that unduly limit fair competition. “The EACCA will commence operations in the 2016/2017 financial year and will act as a one-stop-centre in the enforcement of its provisions,” said Tanzania’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Co-operation Susan Kolimba. Dr Kolimba said the Council of Ministers has appointed commissioners and a secretariat who are working on the modalities of EACCA operations. The East African Legislative Assembly approved $587,565 for the authority. In 2015, the EAC Council of Ministers adopted the East African Community Competition (Amendment) Bill, which provided for the establishment of the EACCA. The authority has jurisdiction in all the five partner states, while South Sudan will be covered at a later stage, as it is not fully integrated into the EAC. The EAC Competition Act, 2006, among other things, seeks to allow consumers to take class action against goods or services providers. It also seeks to seal loopholes that enable trade associations and firms operating across the region to engage in exclusive agreements, or form cartels, forcing consumers to pay higher prices for goods and services. Trade specialists say that while some EAC partner states have enacted national competition acts, these laws have proved inadequate to deal with cross-border and multi-jurisdictional competition cases. National competition laws and regulations are limited to political boundaries because they do...

Rwanda will resume smelting minerals for the export market as it tries to prop up falling profit margins in the mining industry due to depressed global prices. The move is expected to save jobs and stabilise miners’ incomes which have been going downward for the past three years. But investors in mineral processing are pushing for a ban on exportation of raw minerals to ensure a steady supply to processing plants. Christophe Barthelemy, director-general of Phoenix Metal Rwanda, said American officials from the Conflict-Free Smelter Programme are expected in the country in July to audit the smelter. This follows the strict enforcement of the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative, under the global Conflict-Free Smelter Programme, that has made tracing, auditing and certification of minerals compulsory to ensure that they are “conflict-free". The final audit will pave the way for the tin ore processing plant to be issued with a conflict-free mineral certificate that electronics makers base on if they are to use devices made from minerals sourced in the Great Lake region. “We have to run the furnaces during the audit. We need to show the auditors that we are ready for traceability,” said Mr Barthelemy. Phoenix Metals Ltd ran cassiterite smelting tests last year but, due to ongoing audits and power cuts, they switched off the furnaces. Industrial players say a 20-minute power shortage results in the solidification of what is being smelted and also damages furnaces, adding to operational costs. Rwanda is also in the advanced stages of refining coltan...

After one month in existence, the South Sudan transitional government is reeling from a lack of funds to run its operations. President Salva Kiir has blamed donors for going back on their promise to release the funds as soon as he and his rival Riek Machar formed the transitional government of national unity. But the return of Dr Machar in April and subsequent formation of the transitional government has not unlocked aid money, as most donors — especially the US and the European Union — are demanding economic reforms and implementation of key provisions of the August 2015 peace agreement. Aggrey Tisa Sabuni, presidential economic adviser, said the government had been negotiating with the donors over budgetary support but this programme was disrupted by the outbreak of civil war in December 2013 and negotiations have to begin afresh. Projected oil revenue Having reduced its budget by 6 per cent in the 2015/2016 financial to $3.6 billion, South Sudan was expecting grants of $54 million from donors to add to the projected oil revenue of $255 million and non-oil revenue of $76 million per month. But global oil prices dipped from $115 to $46 per barrel, seriously affecting the country’s net oil revenues, as production also dropped from 350,000 barrels 160,000 barrels per day during the civil war. By May 2016, oil revenues had fallen by 75 per cent to $60 million a month. Now, the country generates only $40 million a month in tax revenue. Despite the formation of the...

Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania continue to dominate intra-East African Community trade even though its value fell from $5.8 billion in 2013 to $5.63 billion in 2014. The share of intra-EAC trade to the total trade declined to 10.1 per cent from 11.1 per cent in the same period. Intra-EAC trade is mainly dominated by agricultural commodities such as coffee, tea, tobacco, cotton, rice, maize, and wheat flour and manufactured goods such as, cement, petroleum products, textiles, sugar, beer and salt. Uganda remains a key market for Kenya’s exports, according to Kenya’s Economic Survey (2016). Kenya’s total exports to Uganda over the 2011-2015 period stood at $3.28 billion, followed by Tanzania ($1.98 billion), Rwanda ($734.93 million) and Burundi ($303.83 million). Exports to South Sudan, which was admitted to the EAC in March this year stood at $71 million. Similarly Kenya imported the most goods from Uganda at Ksh81.57 billion ($815 million) in the same period, followed by Tanzania ($748.64 million) and Rwanda ($36.45 million). But major imports came from South Africa, totalling $3.19 billion. Latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that Kenya’s combined exports to Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda  dropped from $69.9 million   in January to $1.56 million in February, before rising to $88.8 million n March. Last year, a study by Kenya’s Ministry of East Africa Community revealed that  the volume of Kenya’s exports to the EAC had fallen sharply largely due to unfair competition from Chinese traders and the country’s unfavourable taxation regime. Unfavourable taxation measures such...

Brazil is exploring ways of deepening its bilateral ties with Kenya and other African countries. As a strategy to boost the relationship between the two countries, the South American economic giant has organised an international agriculture forum that aims to boost growth in the sector in both countries. The Fourth Brazil Africa Forum, will be held in early November in the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu. During the two-day conference from November 3, development strategies for the sector will be discussed, according to Brazilian Ambassador to Kenya Marcela Maria Nicodemos. Speaking in Nairobi during a meeting convened by Brazil-Africa Institute, the main body organising the conference, Nicodemos said they are keen on growing the value of exports and imports between the two countries. “The major Kenyan products exported to Brazil are cut flowers, tea and vegetables, sheep and goat leather and milk. Kenya on the other hand mainly imports heavy machinery for agriculture and other agricultural equipment’s from Brazil,” she said at the press briefing. “We expect a strong delegation from Kenya to participate in the conference. The forum will be an opportunity for them to learn more about Brazil and the potential it offers in terms of trade and investment in all the key sectors,” explained the ambassador. João Bosco Ponte, president of the Brazil-Africa Institute, said the forum will be an avenue for delegates from the country, especially those in the agriculture sector to benchmark and take advantage of emerging business opportunities. “There has been less focus...