SUMMARY Women stand to gain up to 2.5 percent more in real income with removal of trade barriers, a new World Bank report has shown. The joint report by the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organisation has revealed that trade openness can increase women income and welfare by easing business activities and reducing the amount spent on specific goods such as food, clothing and childcare items that are highly demanded by women. The report, Women and Trade: The Role of Trade in Promoting Women’s Equality, cites that higher tax burden is the result of many applied duties and higher spending on imported goods by women consumers. Women stand to gain up to 2.5 percent more in real income with removal of trade barriers, a new World Bank report has shown. The joint report by the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organisation has revealed that trade openness can increase women income and welfare by easing business activities and reducing the amount spent on specific goods such as food, clothing and childcare items that are highly demanded by women. The report, Women and Trade: The Role of Trade in Promoting Women’s Equality, cites that higher tax burden is the result of many applied duties and higher spending on imported goods by women consumers. In a sample conducted in 54 developing economies, the current tariff structure in 78 percent of countries benefit male- headed households. Even though Kenya surpassed most economies, higher tariffs which translate to a lower share...

Rwanda's tea export revenues generated more than $93 million (over Rwf90 billion) in the fiscal year 2019/2020, representing a 12 percent increase compared to the over $83 million (about Rwf80 billion) fetched in 2018/2019, according to statistics from the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB). The statistics also show that tea export volumes increased by 7 percent from more than 30,500 tonnes in 2018/2019 to more than 32,600 tonnes in 2019/2020. The revenue figures imply a rebound in Rwanda's tea exports in the financial year that ended in June 2020 as revenues had decreased by 5 per cent from $88 million in 2017/2018 to 83 million in 2018/2019, despite a 10 per cent rise in tea export volumes. Speaking to The New Times, Pie Ntwari, the NAEB Communication Officer said that factors which drove up the revenues include relatively good prices at the international market last year compared to the previous one, as well as increased production. "There are new tea plantations which started giving yield. This enabled factories to process more tea for export," he said, adding that Rwanda has 18 tea processing factories. In December 2019, NAEB announced that tea farmers will be getting more income following a move allowing them to earn 50 per cent of the price at which a kilogramme of processed tea is sold on the international market. This reflects 10 percentage points higher compared to 40 per cent that they were receiving on a kilogramme before. More interest by farmers Aloys Ndashimye, President...

TANZANIA and Rwanda have agreed to meet at the end of this month to discuss and address various bottlenecks that impede smooth flow of trade between them. Rwandan High Commissioner to Tanzania, Maj.Gen. Charles Karamba unveiled this in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday in a brief meeting with the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), aimed at cementing trade relations between the countries. Speaking at the meeting, the TPSF official, Mr Kennedy Rwehumbiza said one of the trading barriers include Rwanda's refusal to accept Covid-19 test certificates from Tanzania and denial of Tanzanians truck drivers to cross Rwanda border, who want to off load cargos at the border, thus causing delay, increase cost and time of doing business. "Despite the agreement between the two countries, there are still challenges to facilitate transit of perishable, petroleum and transit goods via Rwanda," he said, adding that: On the other side, he added, Rwanda has been hesitating to use Dar es Salaam port due to un-harmonized trade policies, congestion (at the port), numerous checkpoints along the route, and theft, among others. He said that despite the challenges, the statistics show that Rwanda imports from Tanzania was 224.54 million US dollars and Rwanda exports to Tanzania 5.1 million US dollars during 2019, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. Responding, the High Commissioner stressed that: "I see the meeting is of importance and should take place in these few coming days, and include Private Foundations of both sides and other stakeholders, mostly...

This presentation was made by Ms. Gloria Atuheirwe of Trade Mark East Africa during the Virtual public forum on the Plight of Women Traders during the COVID-19 pandemic; Trade in Services, Trade in Goods and the Policy Environment held on Thursday, 10th September 2020. [download id="55709"] Read original article

Arusha — Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa's largest economy, is keen on increased trade links with the East African Community (EAC). Outgoing Nigerian High Commissioner to Tanzania Sahabi Issa Gada, said his country was ready for deeper relations with the EA bloc. "There is a need to encourage deeper integration through business exchanges," he said when he paid a visit to the EAC headquarters here. Dr Gada, who was also accredited to the EAC, said increased trade between the two sides would boost the economies of the same. He did not give any statistics but trade between Nigeria, also the most populous country in Africa, is often reported to below. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Nigeria's economy is worth more than $ 500 billion and $1 trillion in terms of nominal GDP and purchasing power parity respectively. It is often seen as a 'Giant of Africa' owing to its large population of 206 million, a strong economy and an emerging market by the World Bank. EAC Secretary General Liberat Mfumukeko stressed the need for stronger collaboration between EAC and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas He said although the EAC has made some milestones, it was now bound to focus on a few priority areas "that will produce impactful results to the lives of EA citizens". He added: "Integration is not an easy movement as it needs vision, courage and commitment of the partner states to propel the agenda." He stressed the need for Ecowas and EAC to...

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 12- The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has launched a new COVID-19 cross-border trade report urging governments on the continent to adopt and harmonize policies that will help continent strike an appropriate balance between curbing the spread of the virus and facilitating emergency and essential trade. Titled Facilitating cross-border trade through a coordinated African response to COVID-19, the report says continued inefficiencies and disruptions to cross-border trade presented significant challenges for Africa’s fight against COVID-19, and risked holding back the continent’s progress towards the attainment of the sustainable development and goals and Africa’s Agenda 2063. Maintaining trade flows as much as possible during the pandemic will be crucial in providing access to essential food and much-needed medical items and in limiting negative impacts on jobs and poverty, said Stephen Karingi, Director of the ECA’s Regional Integration and Trade Division (RITD) that penned the report. To curtail the rapid spread of the virus, African nations introduced lockdowns and various restrictions that negatively affected cross-border and transit freight transportation. The border restrictions and regulations have helped minimize infections and deaths across the continent but had a negative impact on cross-border trade and economic activity, hindering both significantly. The report recommends that African nations should cooperate and harmonize COVID-19 border regulations to reduce delays, while not undermining the safety of trade. It proposes fast tracking implementation of existing Regional Economic Community (REC) COVID-19 guidelines, including establishing regional coordinating committees with the primary task of addressing operational issues at national borders....

Summary Trade is a force for good. So, when we see the trend towards protectionism, we should all worry. The world is at a crossroads, on matters trade. Everywhere, more measures are being taken to ‘protect’ domestic economies from ‘unfair’ competition. And these is often playing well with domestic audiences, encouraging those in charge to double down and do more of the same. If you doubt this, here’s a startling fact: In 2009, following the financial crisis, only 0.7 per cent of imports into G20 countries faced new restrictive measures, a figure which by 2019 had risen to 10.3 per cent. In short, some of the world’s richest countries are raising barriers to markets access for some of the poorest. Trade is a force for good. If you doubt this, ask any South Korean of a certain age, working women in Bangladesh, someone now in their 50s in many parts of China, many living in states that were part of the former Soviet Union, across swathes of Latin America, and in parts of north, east, west and southern Africa and many other parts of the globe. So, when we see the trend towards protectionism, we should all worry. There are still billions of people in the global South as yet left untouched by the benefits of the ability to trade more widely than their own domestic markets, and billions more who have taken steps along the trading path whose progress is threatened. Of course trade is not a panacea, far...

The East Africa Community (EAC) Secretariat and its Partner States have rolled out a Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking System (RECDTS) in a virtual event held Tuesday. RECDTS is designed as a mobile phone application and will enable the issuance of the EAC COVID-19 digital certificates that are mutually recognised by Partner States, thus eliminating need for multiple testing as well as contributing to alleviating ongoing congestion at East Africa border crossing points. The RECDTS App is designed to stop Corona in its tracks along EAC key transport corridors. The roll out was witnessed by the EU Ambassador to Kenya H.E Simon Mordue and the Ministries of Health in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda and the Ministries of East Africa Community in the Partner states. RECDTS provides a surveillance system to monitor long distance truckers crew health and enable contact tracing. It allows partner states to electronically share truck drivers’ COVID-19 test results; therefore, minimising need for multiple COVID-19 tests in a single trip. The reliance on manual certificates and delayed test results at the borders has been reported as one of the main reasons for costly long delays at border points, such as those witnessed in Busia, Malaba, Nimule and Elegu. Some of the delays have caused tail backs of trucks measuring tens of kilometres in some cases. Also Read  WHO ramps up COVID-19 support to hotspot countries in Africa The EAC developed the app with funding from European Union, Global Affairs Canada, Danida, Finland, Netherlands and United Kingdom through...

The RECDTS App is designed to stop Corona in its tracks along EAC key transport corridors The East Africa Community (EAC) Secretariat and its Partner States today held a virtual roll out event to mark the technical completion and development of the Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking System (RECDTS). RECDTS is designed as a mobile phone application and will enable the issuance of the EAC COVID-19 digital certificates that are mutually recognised by Partner States, thus eliminating need for multiple testing as well as contributing to alleviating ongoing congestion at East Africa border crossing points. The roll out was witnessed by the Chair of the EAC Council of Minister, Hon Prof Nshuti Manasseh,  Ministers of Health from Kenya and Uganda as well as the EU Ambassador to Kenya, H.E Simon Mordue. RECDTS provides a surveillance system to monitor long distance truckers crew health and enables contact tracing. It allows Partner States to electronically share truck drivers’ COVID-19 test results; therefore, minimising need for multiple COVID-19 tests in a single trip. The reliance on manual certificates and delayed test results at the borders has been reported as one of the main reasons of long delays at border points, such as those witnessed in Busia, Malaba, Nimule and Elegu. Some of the delays have caused tail backs of trucks measuring tens of kilometres in some cases. The development of EAC the app with funding from European Union, Global Affairs Canada, Danida, Finland, Netherlands and United Kingdom through TradeMark Africa was in accordance with...

The launch of a regional electronic cargo and driver tracking system which had been slated to take place mid last month and later postponed was launched virtually on Tuesday, September 8. It is one of the measures introduced by the East African Community to prevent further spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) infections in the region. The virtual rollout of the East Africa Community Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking System (RECDTS) was broadcast live from the Malaba-Malaba border crossing point between Uganda and Kenya and the Mirama Hills-Kagitumba border crossing point between Uganda and Rwanda. During the event, officials linked and transmitted a real-time demonstration of driver registration and verification of EAC digital certificate at the borders. The system will issue jointly recognised EAC Covid-19 digital certificates, which will improve efficiency in regional freight transport, by avoiding multi testing for drivers at all points of entry. Despite the borders being closed to human traffic in most regional countries, cargo transport has remained in operation, but drivers are subjected to multiple tests at borders which leads to delays. The EAC developed the App with funding from the European Union, Global Affairs Canada, Danida, Finland, Netherlands and the United Kingdom through TradeMark Africa and in accordance with the mandate given by a joint ministerial meeting of EAC ministers responsible for Health and EAC Affairs. The App provides a surveillance system to monitor the health of long-distance truck crew members and enable contact tracing. It allows partner states to electronically share truck drivers’...