The bill would update how the US evaluates and enforces nations’ eligibility to benefit from the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Image: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg US senators introduced a bill to extend the nation’s trade programme with about 40 sub-Saharan African nations until 2041, helping them maintain duty-free access to the world’s biggest economy. Jim Risch, a Republican from Idaho, and Delaware Democrat Chris Coons introduced the legislation to extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which was first enacted in 2000, on Thursday. The current iteration of Agoa is due to expire in 2025. The extension “would offer businesses the certainty they need to increase investment in sub-Saharan Africa at a time when many firms are looking to diversify their supply chains away from China,” the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in a statement. “Sub-Saharan Africa is home to the world’s youngest population and many fast-growing economies, and AGOA has played a critical role in advancing economic development and strengthening US economic engagement in the region.” Last year, President Joe Biden terminated four nations’ eligibility for the act’s benefits because they failed to meet Congress’s requirements on respecting human rights and democracy. These include Uganda – dropped in response to its draconian anti-LBGTQ laws – as well as the Central African Republic, where Russian mercenary group Wagner established a presence in recent years. Gabon and Niger, both of which had coups in 2023, were also excluded. The bill would update how the US evaluates and enforces nations’ eligibility to benefit from Agoa....

Collaboration and data sharing remain major challenges in the supply chain and logistics industry. This, despite enormous progress in technological development. The virtual watch tower / VWT initiative takes a novel angle to address these two shortcomings. The vision is to create an ever-growing global community that co-creates a digital solution / VWTnet for enhanced visibility and improved supply chain risk management through private and public data-driven analytics and collaboration across supply chain networks worldwide. VWT combines collaborative software development for data sharing with community building for collaboration co-creating a public good. It is co-evolution that leads to transparency, which, alongside neutrality, brings trust as the basis for data sharing and collaboration. The goal is to establish a neutral entity backed by trustworthy and impartial actors to ensure continuity of the effort and solution for improved supply chain management. A public good is like a lighthouse, nobody can be excluded, and everyone benefits. VWT’s primary goal is to drive on-demand collaboration around specified shipments based on improved visibility through data sharing. The VWT Community members stay in full control of the data. Everything happens in their Towers, and the data that is pushed and not pulled is governed by a commonly accepted code of conduct. No central database, no central infrastructure, and no central control is needed. There is no star topology but an ecosystem enabling unit that sits with the VWT Entity that holds the rules, registries, and the key to participation in VWT. VWT can be perceived as the internet of watchtowers. A co-created solution...

The East African Community’s (EAC) Council of Ministers has appointed Uganda’s Deputy Secretary General, Annette Ssemuwemba, to act as Secretary General until a new appointment is made. This decision follows Kenya’s former SG, Dr. Peter Mathuki, being appointed as Kenya’s ambassador to Russia. Ssemuwemba, who previously oversaw customs, trade, and monetary affairs at EAC, assumed her new role on April 16, 2024. “The EAC Council of Ministers has directed Deputy Secretary General, Ms. Annette Ssemuwemba to perform the duties of the Secretary General of the Community with effect from 16 April 2024 until the appointment and assumption of duty by the new Secretary General,” the Secretariat said through X. Ssemuwemba served as the Deputy Executive Director at the Executive Secretariat for the Enhanced Integrated Framework at the World Trade Organization. In this role, she is designated as the Chief Operating Officer responsible for the design of projects and programmes to support the least developed countries (LDC) trade capacity development. Ms Ssemuwemba was previously the Chief Strategy and Results Officer and member of the Senior Leadership team at TradeMark East Africa now Trade Mark Africa. In this role, she was responsible for strategy execution and results delivery across a portfolio of countries in East Africa. She is an international development professional with over 20 years of experience in international trade and development, primarily trade policy formulation, regional integration, trade facilitation and trade-related capacity-building at national and regional levels. Ms Ssemuwemba holds a wealth of experience in designing and implementing trade capacity-building programmes that...

Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) is hosting Partner States from the East African Community (EAC) to develop harmonized procedures for calibration and verification of road tankers, to facilitate trade. This is in line with the UNBS mandate of ensuring fairness in trade and precision in industry through reliable measurement systems. Road tankers are vehicles with mounted measures of capacity used for the transportation of liquids for purposes of trade. These tankers are very critical in the intra-EAC trade because they are used to transport and distribute various commodities like petroleum products, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), raw materials for soap and cooking oil production. However, each EAC partner state legislates its own regulations and procedures for the calibration and verification of road tankers, resulting in measurement variations, which may constitute unnecessary technical barriers to trade when the measurements in question traverse the different partner states. “We need to eliminate irregularities and inconsistencies during inspections at the borders to facilitate smooth flow of goods within the EAC region which boosts trade,” said Eng. John Paul Musimami, the UNBS Deputy Executive Director in charge of Compliance. Some of the issues reported include; Variations in the limits of error (Minimum Permissible Errors) during verification, for example, the limit of error in Uganda is + or -0.25% for both initial and subsequent verification while the limit of error for Tanzania is + or – 0.2% for initial verification and + or – 0.5 for subsequent verification. Inconsistency in respect to stamping dipsticks and verification charts...

Taxes and fees charged on African air tickets are higher than what airlines in other continents charge and are inhibiting air transport on the continent. According to the African Airlines Association (Afraa), a leading trade association of airlines based in Ghana that researches aviation, the average amount paid in taxes and fees by passengers in Africa is more than twice what air travellers in other continents pay. Taxes and fees on African air tickets averages $64 while in Europe it averages $30 per ticket while it is even lower in Middle East at $29.65. The high add-on fees has inhibited the growth of air travel on the continent that is grappling with high poverty rates. Regionally, Western and Central Africa rank as the most expensive regarding international passenger charges averaging $94.59 and $93.74. Unfriendly environment However, passengers from Northern Africa pay the lowest in taxes and fees averaging $26.27. The charges have been blamed on the unfriendly business environment, poor governance and less subsidies given to airlines in Africa compared to those abroad. East African Business Council in a study on air space liberalisation in the EAC shows average departure charges account for 13 percent of the ticket prices for flights in EAC and eight percent for flights to other African countries. Afraa notes that despite efforts by airlines to offer passengers low fares, taxes and fees cause total ticket prices to more than double of the base rate. “The low purchasing power in Africa calls for interventions to evaluate...

Le Royaume-Uni a temporairement supprimé, à compter du 11 avril 2024, les droits de douane à l'exportation pour les fleurs coupées, dans le but de faciliter les échanges commerciaux avec le Royaume-Uni et de les rendre moins coûteux pour les producteurs d'Afrique de l'Est et d'ailleurs. Des quantités illimitées de fleurs peuvent désormais être exportées vers le Royaume-Uni à un tarif de 0 %, même si elles transitent par un pays tiers. Cette mesure est particulièrement importante pour les producteurs de fleurs d'Afrique de l'Est qui transportent leurs fleurs via des pays tiers ou des maisons de vente aux enchères avant leur arrivée au Royaume-Uni. Cette mesure vise à accroître les échanges et à renforcer les relations économiques entre le Royaume-Uni et la région. Les consommateurs britanniques pourraient également y gagner beaucoup - en termes de prix, de saisonnalité et de variété. La suspension des droits de douane de 8 % sur les fleurs coupées s'applique à l'ensemble du monde, mais les principales régions productrices de fleurs du Kenya, de l'Éthiopie, du Rwanda, de la Tanzanie et de l'Ouganda y trouveront leur compte. La suspension des droits restera en place pendant deux ans, du 11 avril 2024 au 30 juin 2026. Le commissaire au commerce de Sa Majesté pour l'Afrique, John Humphrey, a déclaré : Les relations du Royaume-Uni avec l'Afrique de l'Est sont ancrées dans un commerce mutuellement bénéfique. Ce "flower power" supplémentaire permettra au commerce de s'épanouir. Nous allons loin quand nous allons ensemble... ou dans ce cas,...

TradeMark Africa a récemment eu l'honneur d'accueillir Mme Suomela-Chowdhury, directrice générale adjointe du département Afrique de la Finlande, qui était accompagnée d'Otto Kivinen, de l'ambassade de Finlande à Nairobi et présidente du conseil de direction de TMA. La Finlande a été un soutien essentiel de TMA au cours de la dernière décennie, contribuant à hauteur de plus de 26 millions d'euros au financement de base. Ce soutien a permis l'innovation, la durabilité et la collaboration transfrontalière, renforçant ainsi les entreprises dans les zones d'opération de TMA. Grâce à des bailleurs de fonds comme la Finlande, TMA a collaboré avec les gouvernements sur des projets visant à réduire les coûts et les délais des échanges transfrontaliers, ainsi qu'à améliorer l'environnement général des entreprises. Ces interventions comprennent la numérisation des systèmes portuaires, les postes frontières à guichet unique, l'automatisation des processus commerciaux, le soutien aux femmes dans le commerce, entre autres. Mme Suomela-Chowdhury a exprimé son appréciation pour l'agenda de la stratégie 3 de TMA, qui se concentre sur la promotion d'un environnement commercial inclusif, numérique et vert à travers l'Afrique. Allen Sophia Asiimwe, directrice générale adjointe et chef des programmes de TMA, a reconnu l'engagement continu de la Finlande à renforcer les partenariats avec l'Afrique. Ceci est tout particulièrement pertinent au moment où TMA se lance dans la conception d'une nouvelle programmation destinée à générer des impacts encore plus importants dans le cadre des ambitions de la Zone de libre-échange continentale africaine (AfCFTA).

La directrice générale de l'Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a réitéré l'importance d'attirer les investissements dans divers secteurs pour stimuler la croissance économique en Afrique. S'exprimant lors du Forum d'investissement 2024 de la Communauté économique des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (CEDEAO) au Togo, Mme Okonjo-Iweala a mis en évidence les domaines clés dans lesquels l'investissement pourrait avoir un impact significatif. L'un des principaux domaines d'intervention est le développement énergétique, avec la nécessité d'investir dans les énergies renouvelables pour répondre durablement à la demande croissante d'énergie du continent. En outre, elle a souligné l'importance de créer des opportunités d'emploi pour les jeunes par le biais de l'agriculture, en s'appuyant sur des mécanismes de financement innovants et des cadres réglementaires pour combler le déficit persistant de l'Afrique en matière d'infrastructures. Malgré les défis liés à la pandémie mondiale, Mme Okonjo-Iweala estime que l'intégration régionale, en particulier dans le cadre d'initiatives telles que la zone de libre-échange continentale africaine (ZLECA), offre d'importantes possibilités d'attirer les investissements. Elle a souligné l'importance de réduire les coûts commerciaux dans la région de la CEDEAO et d'améliorer les infrastructures physiques et numériques pour faciliter le commerce et le développement économique. Reprenant les propos de Mme Okonjo-Iweala, Kanayo Awani, vice-président exécutif de la Banque africaine d'import-export (Afreximbank), a souligné le rôle essentiel du développement des infrastructures dans la stimulation de la croissance économique. Il a souligné la nécessité de mettre en place des mécanismes de financement durables et des cadres réglementaires pour combler le déficit...

Thursday 11 April - From today, the UK has temporarily removed export tariffs for cut flowers, with the aim of making trade with the UK easier and cheaper for growers in East Africa and beyond. Unlimited quantities of flowers can now be exported to the UK at 0% tariff, even if they transit via a third country. This is particularly important for East African flower growers who transport their blooms via third-countries or auction houses before they arrive in the UK. The move aims to increase trade and further strengthen the economic relationship between the UK and the region. UK consumers could win big too – on price, seasonality and variety. The suspension of 8% duty for cut flowers applies across the world but will be a big win for major flower growing regions in Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The duty suspension will remain in place for two years from 11 April 2024 to 30 June 2026. His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Africa, John Humphrey said: The UK’s relationship with East Africa is rooted in mutually beneficial trade. This additional flower power will allow trade to bloom. We go far when we go together… or in this case, we grow far when we grow together, further reinforcing the UK’s commitment to the expansion of trade in East Africa. In 2022, Kenya was ranked as the fourth biggest exporter of cut-flowers in the world, with 6% of global cut-flower exports. Ethiopia is the second largest cut flower producer in...

THE Organistaion of Women in International Trade (OWIT) Zimbabwe Chapter has called on women-led businesses to be more innovative, efficient and produce products that are of good quality so as to be competitive under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). AfCFTA is an ambitious undertaking that brings together 1,3 billion people in 55 African countries to create the world’s largest free trade area as measured by the number of participating member States. Its objective is the creation of an integrated market for the trade in goods and services and the free movement of people and capital. OWIT Zimbabwe Chapter in partnership with Ecobank Zimbabwe and the Ministry of Women Affairs Community Small to Medium Enterprises Development on Friday hosted the second edition of the Open Market Day and Exhibition for Women Entrepreneurs on Friday in Bulawayo. The second edition of the event which ran under the theme: “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress” comes after successfully hosting the first one in October last year in Harare. In an interview on the sidelines of the event, OWIT Zimbabwe Chapter president and founder of House of Organic Foods, Ms Buhlebenkosi Nyathi said they were all about creating access to international markets, value chain and finance for women. “That is why we have decided to have the second edition in Bulawayo where participants got a chance to network with other business people and hear about all the great initiatives that the Ministry, we as OWIT and Ecobank have in store for them. “Women-led...