Decision by Rwanda and Uganda to impose 75% import duty on Tanzanian rice exports in contravention of East African Community (EAC) Customs Union Protocol is under scrutiny. Responding to Tanzania’s rice exporters, the EAC Secretariat said in a statement on Thursday that: “We know the issue and that the countries are negotiating a settlement.” Under EAC Customs Union, rice originating from Tanzania is supposed to attract no import duty in both Rwanda and Uganda. The EAC Secretariat did not give details on the status of the talks and when will a final decision be arrived at. Kilombero Plantation Limited (KPL)’s Chief Executive Officer, Carter Coleman said the Rwandan and Ugandan tariffs are illegal although the two countries are citing rice imports from Asia which entered the domestic market last year. “While the government of Tanzania got the rice exemption from the EAC Council of Ministers, the Ugandan and Rwandan tariffs are surely illegal,” Mr Coleman said in an email response. He said local rice producers are struggling to dispose of their commodity at a profit because the domestic market is still saturated with the product due to a bumper harvest and imports. “The East African Community (EAC) should stop the Rwanda and Uganda revenue authorities from the illegal 75 per cent tariff that Uganda and Rwanda are still levying on Tanzania rice as a result of last year’s exemption,” he pointed out. Coleman warned that such arbitrary tariff hikes affect regional trade as defined by EA Customs Union Protocol. Early...

Travelling or moving cargo by train is, on the whole, much less expensive than flying. It is also generally cheaper than water transport. Additionally, it serves the most number of people and the most cargo at a go. This makes railway services the most accessible to ordinary people, in part because trains make it even to remote villages where costly renovations would have to be made before they could be reached by air and where it is simply impossible to reach by ship or boat. This partly explains why during the colonial times railways were used to extend the colonial presence all the way from the Indian Ocean coast right to the hinterland of the then Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. Following the 1977 collapse of the East African Community, Tanzania established the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) – which took over from the East African Railways Corporation. For a number of years TRC services were smooth, chiefly thanks to donor assistance of development partners including Canada and the United Kingdom. Their support went into the development of rail lines, locomotives, wagons, coaches, etc. With this assistance, services went so well that TRC once introduced daily passenger train services from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma and Mwanza on the Central Line – and at one time goods trains hauled close to one million tonnes a year. There were also passenger and cargo trains plying the Link Line from Dar es Salaam to Tanga, Moshi, Arusha and the Kenyan port city...

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) has launched a five-year strategic corporate scorecard and transformation plan aimed at enhancing service delivery and performance at the port of Mombasa. The new performance management system dubbed Wajibika Na Tekeleza Ahadi (Delivering the promise), is anchored on four major pillars. KPA managing director Gichiri Ndua said the pillars are customer focus, customer excellence, business growth and governance, which he said if properly utilised, will increase both the input and output at the port. Ndua said the programme will be evaluated at the elapse of five years to find out the impact it will have had and if it should be continuously run or abandoned. He further explained that systematic assessments and monitoring will be done in the course of the set period. Speaking yesterday during the launch of the programme, Ndua challenged port workers to be proactive and agile, saying state corporations have over the years undergone a robust paradigm shift, which must be complemented by similar efforts if the port is to maintain its leading position in the region and also achieve its vision of being a world class seaport. “Today, the situation has changed and public bodies are required to operate on commercial basis with customer focus and within set targets. It is therefore inevitable that the style of management and staff attitude must change to embrace this requirement,” said Ndua. He said apart from using the scorecard to measure personal performance, employees will also be expected to take personal responsibility. Ndua said...

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) workers will now be required to sign performance contracts to boost efficiency in the face of stiff competition from neighbouring ports. Managing director Gichiri Ndua on Wednesday told workers to “up their game” so that business does not shift to Dar-es-Salaam port. The Tanzanian port is expected to become more competitive in the region with the ongoing improvement of the central corridor and construction of a port in Bagamoyo. Dar is also reconstructing the central corridor linking Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo. The northern corridor linking Mombasa with Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan has been cited as one of the routes in the region with the highest number of non-tariff barriers. “We have put in place elaborate programmes to provide capacity to handle the growing cargo volumes and what we now need is to have the right working attitude,” Mr Ndua said. He was speaking during the launch of a Performance Management System and Transformation Framework at KPA headquarters in Mombasa. The system, developed by consulting firm Deloitte and Touche, is based on the balanced scorecard planning and seeks to help workers understand their roles in an organisation and maintain a shared vision and strategy. Mr Ndua noted that KPA had invested in modern equipment, constructed berth 19 and carried out dredging at a cost of over Sh10 billion and was also undertaking construction of a 1.2 million TEU container terminal in order to increase capacity. “For us, the system presents the opportunity to take...

African countries should accelerate integration to promote trade and industrialization by changing mindsets, participants at a meeting on trade said on Tuesday, May 20 in Kigali. Participants at the African Development Bank Group’s Annual Meetings session on “Facilitating Africa’s Trade” agreed that changing mindsets would enhance integration, create economies of scale and promote industrialization that Africa direly requires to become an effective actor in global trade. Noting that Africa cannot prosper with 54 fragmented markets, the conference attended by Ministers of Trade, representatives of international organisations, business leaders, researchers and representatives of civil society across the world, said that it was time to “just do it” (integration). Inter-African trade is said to be rising slowly to around 11% in 2013 while Africa’s trade with the rest of the world is below 3%. Some participants suggested the banning export of unprocessed primary commodities and raw materials, as well as allow free movement of persons, goods and services across African borders in order to encourage production, jobs creation and trade. The conference analyzed global and regional trends in trade facilitation and drew lessons to better inform future interventions in the light of the potential impacts of the WTO’s ongoing Trade Facilitation Agreement. Rwanda’s Commerce and Industry Minister, Francois Kanimba, said that harmonization of government policies and well as the political will to implement such policies were crucial to the realization of Africa’s integration agenda. For her part, the Executive Director of International Trade Center (ITC), Arancha Gonzalez, said Africa needed to invest...

KAKAMEGA Governor Wycliffe Oparanya has said the East African Community common market will make it possible for farmers in the former Western province to sell their products in the region and South Sudan. Oparanya said free movement of people and labour across the region as enshrined in the common market protocol will create employment and investment opportunities for the four counties in the region. “I am happy to say that the ministry has made efforts to conduct a joint border sensitization meetings with the republic of Uganda at Busia and Malaba border posts to create awareness about EAC integration among border communities,” he said. Oparanya said counties in the western region have a high potential for agricultural production but there is lack of market for their goods. He said leaders will be key in driving the integration process forward by educating residents at the grassroots on the benefits of the process. Oparanya was speaking during a one day workshop on the EAC integration by the Ministry of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism at Kakamega’s Golf hotel on Monday. The workshop brought together leaders from Bungoma, Busia, Kakamega and Vihiga counties. Principal Secretary Mwanamaka Mabruki said EAC integration has recorded tremendous success in trade and infrastructure development that guarantee the region economic prosperity. See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-167977/eac-provide-market-goods-oparanya#sthash.mtBG8cb4.dpuf Source: The Star

Full implementation of Single Custom Territory (SCT), aimed at eradicating trade barriers in East Africa, begins on July 1, the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) confirmed. The SCT initiatives are under the trilateral arrangement including Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda for the central corridor and Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda for the northern corridor that was piloted from January this year. Once implemented, it is expected to eradicate trade barriers by adopting a central model of clearance of goods, whereby taxes and assessments will be done only at the first point of entry and, thus, ensure faster clearing of goods as well as reduction in the cost of doing business. In his open remarks on behalf of the Commissioner General, the Acting Commissioner for Customs and Excise Duty, Mr Tiagi Masamaki, said in a workshop in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the SCT was a good initiative transforming and making businesses more efficient and profitable. “With the system, goods will be declared once at the country of destination before reaching the first entry point, thus cutting down operational costs as well as improving significantly the business climate in the region,” he told workshop participants. Key stakeholders in the workshop were the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA), TANROADS (weighbridges), Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) and clearing and shipping Agents. “With the SCT initiative, roadblocks will be eliminated by the adoption of electronic cargo tracking systems, replacing human intervention through automation of procedures that will also impact in stopping corruption,”...

Homogeneity of products from most African markets has been cited as one of the challenges holding back the growth of intra-Africa trade. The majority of African producers and exporters deal in similar products reducing the chances of trading between each other. This forces them to import from markets outside Africa. This was said by the Minister of Trade and Commerce, Francois Kanimba, as he discussed the impediments to Intra-African trade on the second day of the week-long 49th AfDB Annual Meetings. “Many African countries export similar products. There is need for diversification if we are to trade with each other,” Kanimba said. The minister also cited the tendency by most African producers to design and produce exports with the developed markets in mind as well as a culture of discouraging emerging traders at border points as yet another challenge. “History has shown that African products are mostly designed to suit developed markets. African traders are reluctant to produce valuable goods that can be traded amongst ourselves and this has greatly hampered trade,” Kanimba said. He noted that Vision 2020 has outlined key areas that can contribute to the country’s economic growth projections, adding that the projections were dependent on doing business with other African countries. Dr Richard Sezibera, the Secretary General of the East African Community said intra-Africa trade in the region has more than doubled in the last decade, from less than 10 per cent to over 25 per cent. “This has been due to the reduction of trade...

East Africa is increasingly emerging as an attractive investment destination partly because of the economic integration of five states, bringing together more than 130m people, vast amounts of natural resources and agricultural land. Jonathan Yach, CEO of Broll East Africa The East African Community (EAC), a federation of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, has eased the movement of goods and people across the region and enabled companies to expand beyond national borders. However, companies moving into the region are urged not to view the five countries as an ‘amorphous market.’ Jonathan Yach, CEO of commercial property management company Broll East Africa, says EAC member states are aligned in regards to trade but each country is different from the next, necessitating an understanding of each country’s economic and legal framework. “East Africa is not an amorphous market. It is made up of singular countries. Every country in this region has a different business culture which has to be celebrated and understood. For some investors the business culture may make it easier for investment and for others it might not.” The Broll Property Group, founded in South Africa, opened its Kenyan office last year and also runs operations in Ghana, the Indian Ocean Islands, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria and Rwanda. “We have been guiding our clients based on our own experiences and that is that you don’t enter into a market without proper research. When investigating new markets it’s implicit that people do their research and they do their research thoroughly. They...

The reality of the standard gauge railway (SGR) was highlighted when the Prime Minister of China and the President of Kenya put pen to paper in the presence of regional presidents at a State House event. The Government’s commitment to bringing positive reform in the trade logistics industry is, therefore, not in doubt. About two weeks prior to the State House signing, another significant event, also attended by regional presidents, occurred, this time at Nairobi’s Safari Park Hotel where the Kenya Trade Network Agency (KenTrade) launched its flagship project, christened the National Electronic Single Window (e-SWS) The project’s objective is to reduce cargo clearance time at key trade nodes like the Port of Mombasa, Jomo Kenya International Airport (for air freight) and borders. This will be achieved by implementing a single platform to process trade-related cargo clearance documentation. The two events are very closely related in trade logistics, especially in cargo evacuation from the Port of Mombasa into the region, which explains the regional interest in both events. It is also not by coincidence that Kenya hosted both events since we are both the gateway to East Africa and the big brother in the regional economy. My interest is in the launch of e-SWS, which is the feeder to the second event and should create a synchronised system and provide the much-needed magic to make trade facilitation in the northern corridor more effective. However, there are some concerns. First, it is important to note that rail wagons can only have...