East African Community finance ministers face a tough task this week (Thursday) as they present their budget statements for the 2019/2020 fiscal year with a focus on bringing more people and businesses into the tax bracket to service the rising public debt and reverse the fall in revenue collections. The ministers will also be looking to allocate the additional resources to the debt-servicing kitty through the Consolidated Fund Services. EAC partner states are considering ways of widening tax brackets to boost revenue collections and channel more domestic resources towards repayments of interest on billions of dollars’ worth of loans procured to fund development projects. The EAC has been trapped in the web of infrastructure development which has seen millions of dollars find their way into various projects such as pipeline, road, rail, airports, and ports development. It is, however, argued that while infrastructure development is important to the economic development of a nation, funding for these projects is nudging the national economies into a debt overhang, with most of the expensive loans coming from China in exchange for project contracts. DAR ES SALAAM   Source The EastAfrican

A group of cross- border small scale traders have come together to share the cost of transporting goods to various towns in the interior parts of Kenya and Uganda using hired trucks. The move has seen individual traders pay depending on the quantity of the load instead of shouldering the all cost of hiring trucks. Previously trucks would charge about Sh30,000 to transport goods regardless of the volumes and the destinations. After coming together, the traders who deal in small quantities of goods, now pay Sh250 per 90kg load without necessarily having to fill a truck. “These traders deal in goods not exceeding $2,000 (Sh200,000) at a go and given their smaller volume of trade, they found it difficult to hire trucks for transport,” said Charles Achieng, Chairman of Busia Cross Border Traders Associations who is also in charge of BusiaTrade Information Desk. About 40 trucks transport the traders’ goods to Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru, Nairobi or into Uganda, daily. The trucks carry about 120 bags of goods weighing 90 kilos each at a go, with a bag costing about Sh250 to transport from Busia to most destinations in Kenya. After coming together, traders are now required to pay according to offload points along the transportation route. “Initially, this was so costly for the traders who do not have the potential to trade in bigger volumes of products that can fill the trucks. They would be required to pay the full cost even when the trucks are half full,” said Mr...

In March 2018, African countries signed a landmark trade agreement, the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA), which commits countries to remove tariffs on 90 per cent of goods, progressively liberalise trade in services, and address a host of other non-tariff barriers.  Here are some benefits expected from the trade deal, according to research by Brookings Institution 1.Enlarged scope If successfully implemented, the agreement will create a single African market of over a billion consumers with a total gross domestic product (GDP) of over $3 trillion (Sh300 trillion). This will make Africa the largest free trade area in the world. What is less known about the AfCFTA is that its scope exceeds that of a traditional free trade area, which generally focuses on trade in goods, to include trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights and competition policy, and possibly e-commerce. 2. Fair distribution The signing of the Africa free trade area deal in Kigali comes at a time when the benefits of trade are actively contested, and global powers that traditionally promoted trade as a crucial driver of growth are now calling into question its very tenets. This apprehension is not without cause. It is broadly recognised that, while globalisation and trade produced the impressive economic expansion of the past three decades, the gains have not been fairly distributed. The World Bank population-weighted Gini index shows that inequality rose steeply between 1988 and 1998 and declined only moderately by 2013. Although global poverty has fallen, prosperity has not been...

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Monday called for concerted efforts to exploit the transformative economic potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement. The urgent call was made by ECA's Deputy Executive Secretary Giovanie Biha during a two-day high-level ministerial meeting concluded on Monday at the headquarters of the African Union (AU) in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. "AfCFTA legally entered into force but for it to deliver its transformative economic potential, the signatory countries - and the few countries that have not yet signed - must rapidly join and ratify the Agreement to ensure that the continent moves forward together as one entity," ECA's deputy chief said. According to Biha, issues related to the scheduling of tariff offers and finalization of the rules of origin are among the vital imperatives towards the successful implementation of the continental free trade pact. "Difficult decisions must yet to be made and compromises sought, as we transform the AFCFTA legal text into an operable instrument," Biha told African trade ministers. Biha also stressed that as the continental free trade pact is set to start operationalisation during the upcoming AU summit, which is slted for next month in Niamey, Niger, "progress must be made with the AfCFTA implementation roadmap." AU Commissioner for Trade and Industry Albert Muchanga also said that "the coming into existence of the AfCFTA is a continuation of a long journey that started with the establishment of regional economic communities as building blocks of the African Economic...

This week began with good news for regional business persons, especially cross-border traders. The first news was an announcement by the Tanzanian High Commissioner to Rwanda that his country had at last heard complaints raised by businessmen operating in his country. The most pressing one was the removal of unnecessary non-tariff barriers such as the red tape involved for foreigners when opening a bank account. The High Commissioner promised that by the end of the year, all those barriers, including others that may be encountered along the way, will be no more. Some of the barriers were put in place as trade protective measures which have no place in these days of globalization and easing of trade barriers. One other positive outcome this week was the reopening of Gatuna border post for heavy commercial vehicles. The vehicles had been barred from using the border so as not to disrupt construction of the One-Stop Border Post. Work on the Rwandan part is complete unlike on the Ugandan side which is not expected to be completed anytime soon. The temporary disruption at the border had caused a lot of chatter, with many Ugandan officials going on the record to claim that Rwanda had closed the border. They were creating a storm in a teacup because, the other two entry points, Kagitumba and Cyanika were operational. So those who have been seeking to milk political points out of the Gatuna saga had better look elsewhere. What countries need to do is to honour...

The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) last week concluded bilateral tariff negotiations with the East African Community (EAC) which will enhance intra-regional trade between the respective countries. According to SACU Secretariat, the successful conclusion of these talks means that the SACU-EAC private sector will have access to new and dynamic markets for exports as well as new sources of inputs for domestic production processes. These negotiations are part of the Tripartite Free Trade Area, which was launched in June 2015 with the aim to establish a single market for 27 African countries with a combined population of about 700 million people (57% of Africa’s population), and Gross Domestic Product above US$1.4 trillion. “The conclusion of the SACU-EAC negotiations marks a significant step towards realising the benefits of the TFTA. The main aim of the SACU-EAC market access negotiations has always been to provide commercially meaningful market access for the private sector in the two regions,” the SACU Secretariat added.   Source Nambia Economist

“As EAC partner states unveils their budgets for the 2019/2020 fiscal year next week, governments should consider improving transport infrastructures, energy and access to credit to ease doing business in the EAC,” said a statement by EABC that was signed by Peter Mathuki, the executive director. The council said that to enhance revenue collection, EAC partner states budgets should focus more on efficient and effective service delivery for growth and expansion of businesses in the EAC and beyond. The EABC also urged adequate budgetary allocation of resources for the implementation and monitoring of the EAC Common Market Protocol and support to national implementation committees and related activities. “The EAC partner states’ budgets for the financial year 2019/2020 should prioritize achieving the vision of the EAC industrialization strategy which includes being globally competitive, environment-friendly and ensure a sustainable industrial sector,” the statement intoned. The budgets should visualize capacity to significantly improving the living standards of the people of East Africa by 2032 and the objective of 5th EAC development strategy to building a firm foundation for transforming the EAC into a stable, competitive and sustainable lower middle income region by 2021. EABC suggested that partner states budgets for the coming fiscal year should address the challenges of EAC regional integration such as high costs of doing business and the cost of borrowing, allocate budget funds for implementation and monitoring of the Common Market and Customs Union protocols and increasing intra-EAC trade through elimination of non-tariff barriers. The budgets should also focus...

In trade, time is money. And African businesses and consumers could save billions if delays at borders are reduced. To help make this possible, one of the continent’s free trade areas – the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) – has recently enlisted UNCTAD to help make it easier and faster to move goods in the region. The heads of the two organizations met on 24 May at COMESA’s headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia, to seal the €3 million (US$3.34 million) deal, which builds on UNCTAD’s experience in helping countries on the continent to facilitate trade. In landlocked Rwanda, for example, UNCTAD’s automated customs data system, known as ASYCUDA, slashed the time needed to clear goods at the border from 11 days in 2010 to less than 2 days in 2014. This cut the cost of clearance from about US$35 to US$5. “[We] recognize the role UNCTAD plays in promoting trade facilitation, its experience and capacity in modernizing customs administrations, and the intellectual property of ASYCUDA,” COMESA Secretary-General Chileshe Kapwepwe said. “I am confident that UNCTAD will deliver the expected outcomes as enshrined in the co-delegation agreement,” she said. UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi added that the benefits of the agreement will extend beyond COMESA to all corners of the continent. This is because the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which entered into force on 30 May, depends on the health of the continent’s regional economic communities – and COMESA is the largest in terms of members....

Kenya and Tanzania are pushing to resolve their long-standing trade disputes, which have slowed down the flow of goods across common borders. Trade officials from the two countries held bilateral meetings in Arusha, in April, to try and resolve the many contentious trade issues, including rules of origin for some products and persistent suspicion over the quality of products traded across the borders. People familiar with the negotiations told The EastAfrican that the first bilateral meeting was held in September 2017 and the next meeting is scheduled for Mombasa in early July. So far the trade officials have held four bilateral meetings since 2017. The meetings follow a directive by the regional Heads of State in March requiring ministers of trade and EAC affairs from Kenya and Tanzania to address and resolve non-tariff barriers affecting trade between the two countries. “Our trade teams have been meeting because we need to resolve these issues amicably,” said Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for EAC Affairs Adan Mohamed. 19 out of 37 NTBs Kenya’s Principal Secretary in the Department of Trade Chris Kiptoo said the two countries have managed to resolve 19 out of 37 NTBs while the ministers of trade have made recommendations on how to resolve the remaining 18 NTBs. Last year, Tanzania imposed a 25 per cent import duty on Kenyan confectionery, including juice, ice cream, chocolate, sweets and chewing gums, claiming Kenya had used zero-rated industrial sugar imports to produce them. Kenya banned Tanzanian tour vans from accessing the Maasai Mara...

As the strategic significance of East Africa is once again growing with new players in the region due to its significant location at the entrance of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, France is also back. On March 12, President Emmanuel Macron paid his first visit to the region, by visiting Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya in an effort to catch up on the new developments in the region by nurturing new partnerships across the region and to break from its colonial past. In Djibouti, France’s former colony in the Horn of Africa and a country in which Thomas A. Marks has described as “France’s strategic toehold in Africa,” Macron’s visit was seen as an effort to “reassert French influence in the former colony, where China has a military base and has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure,” as Reuters reported. Djibouti, which hosted a French military base since 1932 and signed a mutual defense treaty with France in 1977, has become a military hub for other foreign powers – including the U.S., China and Japan due to its strategic location as the southern entrance of the Red Sea – a significant waterway for global commerce and for naval powers to project influence across the Indian Ocean, as well as the Near East. Countering China’s growing influence across the Horn of Africa was one of the most important objectives of Macron’s visit, as Beijing’s influence is growing in the Horn of Africa through massive investments in infrastructure projects including ports, railways, and...