NAIROBI (Reuters) - The greater East Africa region could gain two million new jobs if the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) - due to start in July - works as planned, according to a study the United Nations released on Thursday. The AfCFTA, which is the biggest trading bloc in the world after the WTO, is designed to bring together Africa’s 55 countries into a single market of 1.3 billion people with an annual economic output of over $3.4 trillion. That will drive industrialisation, the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) said in the report, although the planned removal of tariffs on more than 90% of goods alone will not be enough. Officials must make sure businesses can move goods freely across borders and customs rules and procedures are consistent, the study warned. “What will have a big impact is making sure our borders operate seamlessly,” said Frank Matsaert, the head of Trade Mark East Africa, an organisation that promotes free trade in the region and co-produced the report with UNECA. Massive red tape and delays have crippled past attempts to integrate economies on the continent through existing smaller trade blocs like the East African Community. The 14 countries in the greater Eastern African region have some of the world’s fastest growing economies, such as Ethiopia, but the region suffers massive trade deficits. Importing large amounts of finished goods puts pressure on national currencies and hurts local industries, which are operating 20-40% below capacity because imports are cheaper, the...

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NAIROBI, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Trademark East Africa, a regional trade promotion agency, said on Thursday it will raise 16.3 billion shillings (about 160 million U.S. dollars) to promote the development of green transport and logistics corridors in the eastern African region. Anthony Mveyange, director of the research and learning, Trademark East Africa, told a trade forum in Nairobi that it will source the funding from international development agencies to ensure that the transport sector in the region reduces its carbon footprint. "We will partner with national governments to implement measures that incentivize the adoption of green transport mechanisms in the eastern African region," Mveyange said during the launch of a report produced jointly by United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and Trademark East Africa in Nairobi. Mveyange noted that the region is served with two key transport corridors that link the area to the rest of the world. The northern transport corridor links Kenya's port of Mombasa to Uganda and South Sudan, while the central transport corridor runs from Tanzania's port of Dar es Salaam and serves Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mveyange added that the transport sector is one of the key sources of greenhouse gas emissions hence the need to promote green methods of transportation. He noted that regional integration has facilitated cross border trade meaning the volume of goods being transported has also increased. "We want to counter the emission of pollution caused by more vehicles on the road as well as...

The greater East Africa region could gain two million new jobs if the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) - due to start in July - works as planned, according to a study the United Nations released on Thursday. The AfCFTA, which is the biggest trading bloc in the world after the WTO, is designed to bring together Africa’s 55 countries into a single market of 1.3 billion people with an annual economic output of over $3.4 trillion.That will drive industrialisation, the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) said in the report, although the planned removal of tariffs on more than 90 per cent of goods alone will not be enough.Officials must make sure businesses can move goods freely across borders and customs rules and procedures are consistent, the study warned.“What will have a big impact is making sure our borders operate seamlessly,” said Frank Matsaert, the head of Trade Mark East Africa, an organisation that promotes free trade in the region and co-produced the report with UNECA.Massive red tape and delays have crippled past attempts to integrate economies on the continent through existing smaller trade blocs like the East African Community.The 14 countries in the greater Eastern African region have some of the world’s fastest growing economies, such as Ethiopia, but the region suffers massive trade deficits. Importing large amounts of finished goods puts pressure on national currencies and hurts local industries, which are operating 20-40 per cent below capacity because imports are cheaper, the report said.Betty Maina, Kenya’s...

Nairobi, 6 March 2010 (ECA)- The implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Eastern Africa could result in welfare gains amounting to USD 1.8 billion for East Africa, boosting intra-African exports by more than USD 1.1 billion and creating more than 2 million new jobs, says a new report. This report, entitled: “Creating a Unified Regional Market - Towards the Implementation of The African Continental Free Trade Area in East Africa” jointly published by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Trademark East Africa, was launched yesterday in Nairobi, Kenya. The launch event was attended by more than 130 experts, including Ministers, ambassadors, government officials, trade economists, university lecturers, development partners and youth and women’s representatives from Kenya, Burundi, South Sudan, Somaliland, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Betty Maina, Kenya’s minister for trade and industrialisation, explained that her country pursues growth in trade by identifying different markets to its products. She stressed that to maximise benefits from the AfCFTA, greater attention must be geared towards supply chains in agricultural commodities and processed food products to scale it up to the continental level. “We need to up our game and I am glad that large numbers of young people enter the food processing industry, which provides a lot of jobs for our youth”, she said. Stephen Karingi, Director Regional Integration and Trade Division at the ECA, who also attended the event, said that by 2040 the AfCFTA has the potential to increase the value of agricultural and food...

Trading in Africa’s free trade area is scheduled to begin on July 1. [caption id="attachment_52480" align="aligncenter" width="656"] The African Heads of States and Governments pose during African Union (AU) Summit for the agreement to establish the African Continental Free Trade Area in Kigali, Rwanda, on March 21, 2018. AFP PHOTO[/caption] This ambitious initiative creates a single market for goods and services and a customs union with free movement of capital and business travellers–the world’s largest given Africa’s 1.2 billon population and combined GDP of over $2.5 trillion. A recent article by Landry Signé in Foreign Affairs titled “How Africa Is Bucking the Isolationist Trend,” noted that if the continental trade agreement is successfully implemented, Africa will have a combined consumer and business spending of $6.7 trillion by 2030. The stakes are high. The newly-appointed African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretary General, Wamkele Mene, and his team must, by necessity, prioritise communication and advocacy. In recent months, decisions have been made at an unprecedented rate, meaning that many member states are yet to fully appreciate the implications of this mammoth project. Hence the need to inform and educate on what it entails. It is imperative that before July 1, 2020, there be strategic engagement with all Ministries of Finance, Trade/Industry and Immigration on the continent to arrive at a common understanding of what lies ahead. Africa has made tremendous strides in information and communication technologies (ICTs) having heavily invested in fibre optics that would be instrumental in developing an effective communications strategy....

The 20th Edition of the annual East African Community Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Trade Fair, officially known as JuaKali Nguvu Kazi Exhibition is set for December 13 to 22 at Gikondo Expo Grounds in Kigali, according to the EAC Secretariat. The trade fair themed “EAC@20: Building EAC through Micro and Small Enterprises” jointly organized on a rotational basis by the EAC Secretariat, the East African Confederation of Informal Sector Organisation (EACISO) in collaboration with EAC partner states,  brings together artisans from the six partner states: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. In a statement, the Director-General Customs and Trade at the EAC Secretariat, Kenneth Bagamuhunda, the trade fair is expected to attract up to 1,300 exhibitors from EAC Partner States’ Trade Facilitation Institutions and  EAC Organs and Institutions.  It is noted that during the exhibitions, daily symposia will be conducted to build the capacity of the artisans on integration matters and other issues pertinent to the development of their businesses. Key areas of capacity building that will be covered by the symposium component include: cross border trade; products value addition; standards, quality assurance, metrology and testing; benefits and opportunities of the EAC integration process to SMEs; the bloc’s rules of origin; in addition to small and medium enterprise development and opportunities in the South Sudan. More about the JuaKali Nguvu Kazi Exhibition The EAC Secretariat in collaboration with the partner states and EACISO have organized the annual exhibition, since 1999, in order to support promotion of the micro,...

The European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries are extending the Cotonou Agreement to December this year, after failing to reach a consensus on the structure of future relations. When the EU and 79 ACP countries adopted the Cotonou Agreement in 2000, they aimed at reducing/eliminating poverty and integrating ACP countries into the world economy. EU chief negotiator Jutta Urpilainen said the blocs are looking at a post-Cotonou partnership that addresses today’s realities, meets mutual needs and champions a common vision of solidarity and progress. The current agreement that governs trade and political relations between the two blocs was set to expire on February 29. It is based on three pillars: Development co-operation, economic and trade co-operation and political dimension. Formal negotiations between the EU and ACP countries have been ongoing since October 2018 but differences on the issue of migration and trade regimes has made it impossible for the groupings to reach a consensus. Analysts say that following Brexit and with new realities particularly the emergence of China in world trade and geopolitics, ACP countries want to push for a binding agreement that addresses their interests. For Africa, mutually beneficial strategic partnerships akin to those being pursued with individual countries like UK, US, China and Russia are key. Failure to reach agreements on the economic partnership agreements, a key component of the Cotonou Agreement has exposed structural weaknesses in EU’s relationship with ACP countries, leading to prolonged stagnation in trade. “The Cotonou Agreement has benefited Africa in...