The standard gauge railway (SGR) train in Kenya. Plans are underway to extend the planned Rwanda-Tanzania SGR to eastern DR Congo. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP A plan by Tanzania and Rwanda to extend the joint standard gauge railway line to link Kigali and Rubavu on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo seems to have gained fresh impetus after President Felix Tshisekedi’s recent visit to Dar es Salaam. Kinshasa has given the green light for a feasibility study to be carried out to pave the way for the stretch to its eastern border. President Tshisekedi said in Dar es Salaam that the extension of the SGR to Rubavu will open up trade opportunities for the country which, according to a TradeMark Africa report, depends entirely on the ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa for its imports and exports. The detailed design for an extended line from Isaka in Tanzania to Kigali in Rwanda, covering 575km, was agreed on and both countries are going to finance the project at a cost of $2.5 billion, with Tanzania paying $1.3 billion and Rwanda $1.2 billion. Rwanda will incur another expense to cover the extended line to Rubavu. ASSURANCE President Tshisekedi assured President John Magufuli of Tanzania of increased volumes of his country’s exports and imports through Dar es Salaam, which will be connected with the SGR when is complete.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June 26, 2019 (ECA) - All is set for the two-day regional trade forum for the Horn of Africa focusing on the implementation of the historic African Continental Free Trade Agreement that went into force on 30 May. The theme of the forum is: 'AfCFTA Implementation: Breaking Down Geographical, Logistical and Regulatory Barriers to Trade and Investment in the Horn to Boost Industrialisation: A Focus on the Pharmaceutical Industry'. Speaking on the eve of the meeting. Stephen Karingi, Director of the Economic Commission for Africa's (ECA) Regional Integration and Trade Division, said much work now needs to be done now that the AfCFTA is in force. 'These regional trade forums, besides providing platforms for member States, business communities, researchers and others to access cutting-edge evidence-based policy analysis and briefs, methodologies and tools to support shared gains from the AfCFTA, will allow the region to discuss what needs to be put in place in terms of policies to ensure every African benefits,' Mr. Karingi said. He said sessions, which will focus on a number of sub-themes, including boosting competitiveness and job creation in the Horn of Africa with pharmaceuticals as an example; stocktaking - completing the investment, competition and intellectual property protocols of the Phase II agenda; broadening policy space and taking advantage of flexibilities, will encourage participants to expand their thinking and explore fresh opportunities under the new continental market. 'Thanks to the AfCFTA, Africa is now in a position to say market size is no longer...

The  Eas  African Business Council (EABC) has urged the private sector and policy makers to embrace intra-trade as a means of boosting Africa’s economy. This  is  a  move that will see the success of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) project that will create a single economic market in Africa as  a means of reducing cost of doing business, reducing trading levies and increasing efficiency and standards of doing business in Africa. Speaking  on Monday during the official opening of the EABC Regional Consultative workshop on AfCFTA, the EABC Chairman, Nick  Nesbitt  said that improving  intra-trade will enhance competitiveness in the continent which will extend the value addition chain in the member states. “If  we embrace intra-trade, there will be regional value addition by improving the manufacturing sector which will open up markets across the region advancing Africa’s economy and living standards,” he said. Nesbitt  also  said that improving intra-trade will integrate different countries, different businesses and political agenda making it easier for business people  to trade within the continent. The  Chairman  added that less trade is done in the continent compared to other continents because of the difficulty in doing business and urged the key players  in trade to deal with the issues so as to ensure the success of trade in Africa. “Doing business in Africa is difficult due to physical, travel, telecommunication, political and non-tariff barriers. We need to deal with these issues together as the private sector and the policy makers to boost trade in Africa,”...

Addis Ababa, 24 June 2019 (ECA) -The operationalisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and its implications for the Horn of Africa, particularly in terms of industrialization, economic diversification and job creation, will be the focus of a Regional Trade Forum on 27-28 June in Addis Ababa. The Forum aims to provide a unique platform for all stakeholders, from policy makers to private sector actors, academics and civil society organisations, to explore the extent to which the AfCFTA can be a game changer in the Horn and help address its specific trade and competitiveness challenges. Participants are expected to come up with recommendations on how to use the AfCFTA as a policy tool to create positive change and impact in the sub-region as well as advancing gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. specific and concrete transboundary issues, such as interconnected power grids, shipping, transport related logistics corridors, and mining and development projects. The Regional Trade Forum is co-organized by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) with the African Union Commission and the Government of Ethiopia, in partnership with the IGAD Secretariat, Afreximbank, TradeMark Africa and the Ethiopian Airlines Group. Under the general theme of “AfCFTA Ratification and Implementation: Breaking Down Geographical, Logistical and Regulatory Barriers to Trade and Investment in the Horn to Boost Industrialisation – A Focus on the Pharmaceutical Industry”, the forum will include plenaries and roundtables organized around nine topics: The AfCFTA: Boosting Competitiveness and Job Creation in the Horn of Africa – pharmaceuticals as...

Regional countries are set to increase market access for their agricultural products following the commencement of a new capacity building project to mainstream sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) priorities into national policies. The project is titled: ‘Mainstreaming SPS capacity building into the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and other National Policy Frameworks to Enhance Market Access’. The project has a budget of US$ 464,075 out of which US$ 390,075 is provided by the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) a World Trade Organization (WTO) agency. The project covers five countries that are members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA); Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Malawi. It is being implemented under the ‘Prioritizing SPS Investments for Market Access (P-IMA) framework, an initiative of the STDF. Kenya is the second country after Uganda, to start implementing the project with the inception meeting and high-level stakeholder dialogue taking place yesterday followed by training on P-IMA from today to Thursday this week in Nairobi. The events bring together experts from the private sector, relevant public sector departments and institutions of government to build consensus on the most critical SPS priorities and investments. The P-IMA framework is an evidence-based approach to inform and improve SPS planning and decision-making processes. It helps to link SPS investments to public policy goals including export growth, agricultural productivity, and poverty reduction. Currently, intra COMESA trade remains low relative to other regions, at around 11% of total COMESA exports with the majority of traded products...

THE East African Business Council and his development partners convened a two-day meeting in Nairobi, Kenya this weekend to deliberate on liberalisation of goods and services in a bid to repositioning the EAC region in light of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Over 40 industry and business experts from the region attended the meeting organised also by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), International Trade Centre (ITC) and TradeMark Africa. We find the Nairobi forum has come at the most opportune time as without strategies the region will not be able to benefit fully from the agreement covering a market of 1.2bn people with a combined GDP of 2.5 trillion US dollars. The AfCFTA aims to establish a single continental market for goods and services, and ease the free movement of businesspeople and investment across the continent. Ultimately, the deal seeks to boost intra-regional trade levels, promote investment and job creation, and help transform the economic landscape of the continent in favour of higher value added and wealth generation. Signatory countries will need to drop 90 per cent of their tariffs for imports from other African states. According to the United Nations, this could boost intra-African trade by 52.3 per cent. And once countries drop their remaining tariffs, which they will be allowed to maintain for a decade in order to protect key industries, the U.N. says intra-African trade will double. However all these will not drop like manna from heaven. There will be challenges to navigate before...

  Manchester-based planning, design, architecture and engineering team FBW Group is advising an international consortium backed by $400m on the buildability of sites in East Africa to boost trade across the continent. FBW is part of the consortium led by international development consulting company IPE Global which is currently carrying out feasibility studies centred on the creation of special ‘trade and logistics clusters’ near borders and points of entry in countries across East Africa. Aid-for-trade organisation TradeMark ... You can carry on reading TheBusinessDesk.com for free, but you have reached the maximum number of pages an unregistered user can view. Sources : TheBusinessDesk

Kigali, 22 June 2019 (ECA) - When the African Continental Free Trade Area is implemented, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) estimates an increase of intra-African exports of Eastern Africa by over US$ 1 billion. For Rwanda, much of that would be explained by increased trade with its neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo. On Friday 21st June, in collaboration with ECA and Trademark East Africa, Rwanda's Private Sector Federation (PSF) organized a meeting to discuss the potential benefits from the AfCFTA and how Rwandan companies could take advantage of the new opportunities. Andrew Mold, Acting Director of ECA in Eastern Africa, revealed preliminary simulation results showing that Rwandan exports to DRC would increase by more than USD 56 million, once the AfCFTA was fully implemented. At a regional level, he stressed that the beneficiary sectors would principally be the employment-creating sectors like processed foods, light manufacturing and textiles, creating an additional two million jobs in Eastern Africa. Stephen Ruzibiza, the Chief Executive Officer of PSF, encouraged business owners and entrepreneurs to take advantage of the potential 1.2 billion customers and work together as they identify their future areas of growth. "Collectively, we have enormous potential to tap into this continental market," he said. The participants also discussed how AfCFTA can provide a platform for a common approach to African trade relations with other countries. According to Mold, Africa currently has 512 Bilateral Investment Treaties with other countries, of which 44 are Intra- African. Each one of these has...

Successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement could be dependent on aspects such as provisions where countries grant each other trade preferences for goods produced in Africa rather than imports from outside the continent. With the agreement already in force since May after meeting the minimum required ratifications. Trade experts say that by scrapping import and tariffs and quotas among themselves on most traded goods, African countries would be well placed to make the most competitive advantage of firms within the Free Trade Area. The provision, known as ‘Rules of Origin,’ is currently under negotiations with experts saying it is likely to be a huge determinant for the success of AfCFTA. If well effected, the provision will see African products feature across the continent and becoming more competitive. The provision will go beyond allowing goods from the continent access to markets to ensuring competitiveness. But a recent study by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development showed that many of the AfCFTA gains could be undermined if rules of origin are not appropriately designed and enforced to support preferential trade liberalisation. For instance, if the provision of rules of origin are favourable and ideal, East Africa’s tea exports to the rest of the continent, especially Northern Africa would likely become more competitive. Between 2015 and 2017, about 43 per cent of the imports to Africa were shipped from China while 17 per cent was from India and Sri Lanka. Well-designed preferential trade liberalisation could see East African...

Heavy trucks from Kenya and Uganda will have to wait a little longer before they could use the Gatuna One Stop Border Post (OSBP) after the trial period that saw the border post reopen for 10 days for big trucks expired. No time has been given as to when the busiest border post linking Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya will reopen but sources say it will take approximately a month for the contractor on the Rwandan side to do final touches before a decision to fully operationalize the border post is made. On June 7, Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) announced that the border post located on the northern frontier with Uganda was going to be reopened to heavy trucks following its closure in March this year to allow construction of One Stop Border Post facilities. The closure led to the diversion of heavy trucks headed to and out of Rwanda to Kagitumba Mirama Hills One Stop Border Post and Cyanika –a move which was decried by Ugandan traders who termed it as ‘political sabotage’ linked to tensions between the two countries. Rwanda maintains that the closure is aimed at fast tracking construction works, which Rwanda Transport Development Agency (RTDA) said are going as planned, with the contractor given more time to correct a few things identified during the trial and inspection period, ahead of planned reopening. The State Minister in Charge of the East African Community (EAC) Olivier Nduhungirehe told KT Press that “the One Stop Border Post will of course be re-opened...