Since the creation of the Continental African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) endorsed at the African Union Summit in Niamey on July 7, 2019, we have been pushing forward the idea that a common market for and by Africans is possible and create a single market for goods and services to facilitate the free movement of people and investments and lay the foundations for a continental customs union. We continue to promote this economic integration among Heads of State and Government, emphasizing the sharing of economic benefits over historical rivalries and relative gains. This study is part of this process. It provides an overview of all the local and international challenges likely to increase or hinder the implementation of the agreement. It thus enlightens African decision-makers by providing them with objective figures to guide them in their decision-making. For the prerequisite for the implementation of the AfCFTA remains the political will to advance intracontinental trade relations. This will require stakeholders to coordinate and harmonize trade policies at the national, regional, continental and global levels. Rethinking government revenue sources The AfCFTA calls for the elimination of 90 per cent of tariffs on intra-African trade, which for some countries dependent on these taxes could represent a drop-in government revenue and thus an obstacle to the success of the agreement. However, according to data from the study, intra-African tariffs are low relative to tariffs between Africa and the rest of the world. About 1.5 per cent of Africa’s GDP or $37 billion comes from...

Traders are concerned over the growing storage bills due to cargo stuck at different entry ports, according to Uganda Cargo Consolidators Association. Speaking in an interview last week, Mr Jackson Katende, the Uganda Cargo Consolidators Association spokesman, told Daily Monitor that the slowdown in the pace of clearing cargo at different ports of entry has created cargo pileups, thus resulting into an increase in storage costs. "The slowdown in the pace of clearance and limited transport means has created problems for us, which has pushed us to the wall because cargo is taking long to leave ports. We are paying a lot of money just for storage," he said. Traders have only nine days within which they must clear their cargo out of ports of entry failure of which the have to pay for the extra days the cargo is stored at such points. Storage costs for a container, Mr Katende said, stand between $100 to $120 or between Shs378, 000 or Shs454,000, which are a large additional cost for the traders. Last week, Kenya Ports Authority said it would extend the free storage days from nine to 14 days. However, according to Mr Katende, even the 14 days will not be sufficient given the pileups that have been seen in the last few weeks at different entry ports. "Currently, delay in clearing of goods at ports of entry seems unavoidable especially in this Covid-19 period. No one prepared us for this. They should waive costs of storage," he said....

KAMPALA – The Minister of Trade, Industry, and Cooperative, Amelia Kyambadde has reported an increase in Uganda’s merchandise exports, a majority of which are agricultural which rose by 40.2% between 2016 to 2019. While giving the sector’s performance at the Office of the Prime Minister, Kyambadde said the exports increased from $2.92125bn in 2016 to $4.09565bn in 2019. She further said since the launch of the Buy Uganda Building Uganda (BUBU) policy, there has been the growth of locally produced programs. “Locally owned companies have continued to have an equal share of the national cake in terms of contract award in the value chain,” she said. Kyambadde said with the COVID-19 epidemic, the responsiveness of local Industries has been enabled by BUBU policy to produce sanitizers, salt (Kampala), NYTIL (masks and protective wear). She also said that the BUBU logo has been registered under the Trade Marks Act of 2010 and gazetted in the Uganda Gazette and will be rolled out in the next Financial Year 2020/2. Kyambadde said “The Ministry trained and continue to train professional bodies and their membership on the reservation and preference schemes under Government procurement and the BUBU initiative.” The minister further revealed that a total of 1,258 cooperatives were registered during the year, bringing the total number of registered cooperatives to 21,454. “The cooperatives provide range services to their members which include financial services, agricultural marketing, transport, energy, housing among others,” she said. She added that the ministry conducted offsite and onsite supervision of...

Many African countries are all too familiar with the social and economic upheaval posed by outbreaks of infectious diseases. Recent experiences with Ebola are fresh in peoples’ minds across West and Central Africa, as are those with TB and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa. As a result, African countries understand the need for regional coordination in overcoming public health challenges. The World Bank Group has responded swiftly to each of these health emergencies – often through a regional response designed to counter immediate threats while also strengthening countries’ capacity to be proactive in detecting and responding to outbreaks. There are important lessons to draw from these experiences as we combat the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). First, leverage existing regional networks and operations to catalyze an immediate, large-scale response. Helping countries strengthen cross-border collaboration for detection and response to outbreaks is a long-standing priority of the Bank Group’s regional integration efforts in Africa. Large-scale investments, strong networks, and a joint vision among stakeholder countries are already in place. They are now being activated and scaled up quickly in response to COVID-19. The Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement Program (REDISSE) – a $670 million operation across 16 countries of West and Central Africa – has quickly mobilized over $193 million to help 13 countries with entry-point surveillance, reinforced laboratory testing capacity, infection prevention and control, access to essential medical equipment and materials, and risk communication. Having responded to Ebola in the last few years, REDISSE has provided countries with early and immediate access to financing so...

COVID-19 and the African trade dynamics Just like other countries in the world, African states were not prepared for the spread of the novel coronavirus. Interestingly and as expected, two powerful African states, Egypt and Nigeria, recorded the first cases of the virus in Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Of 54 countries in Africa, 53 countries have recorded cases of the virus and only Lesotho is yet to record any. This record in Lesotho has perhaps been linked to a lack of testing materials and not that the country is indeed free from the virus. Source: Wikipedia Trade in Africa has primarily been a case of a producer exporting raw materials to foreign countries for production and the original producer importing the finished products. This situation has seen Africa contribute so much to global trade than it is given credit for. Indeed, Africans have a penchant for foreign goods, without necessarily producing the same goods. Producers who have made what can be referred to as “Made in Africa” products have not reaped much profit as much as their foreign counterparts because the African market is saturated with foreign products. For instance, 75% of the world’s cocoa is sourced from Africa yet Africa imports most of its chocolates. The oil-producing states in Africa contribute significantly to global crude but almost all petroleum products in Africa are imported. Source: World Bank The Economic Development in Africa Report 2019 suggests that the total trade record from Africa to the rest of the world was about US$760 billion between 2015 and 2017 and contributed between 80-90%...

With the current fast-changing developments, policy makers need to know what is happening to the economy in real time, but they often must settle for data telling them what happened many weeks ago. And international trade, which links countries through a complex web of supply chains, is an area where timely information is especially valuable from a global perspective. Most trade takes place by sea, and – for navigational safety purposes – virtually all cargo ships report their position, speed, and other information many times a day. A new IMF methodology using these data can help better inform us how international trade is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on machine-learning techniques, we can provide better answers to simple questions such as: How big is the drop in trade activity? Should it be attributed mostly to exports or to imports? A new approach Using over one billion messages from ships over a period of five years, the newly-developed methodology closely replicates official trade statistics for many countries and for the world in aggregate. It is available at a daily frequency in real time, while official statistics are typically delayed by many weeks. At the global level, our indicators built from ships’ radio signals closely approximate monthly official trade statistics (with a correlation of nearly 0.9 in levels, and around 0.4 in quarter-on-quarter growth rates). The top panel of our Chart of the Week shows a dramatic fall in Chinese exports in the wake of initial lockdown measures to contain the spread of the...

The UN Economic Commission for Africa is helping to bring unique African products and their promoters to the platform in a practical COVID-19 response move Imagine using one second to sell three thousand (3000) bags of a coffee produce which lay fallow hitherto in storehouses in Rwanda for months due to freighting stand-stills caused by the COVID-19 global lockdown! This is what happened on 14 May 2020 during a livestream by coordinated by the Alibaba Business Group to position small-scale world brands on the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), a the six-year-old initiative which facilitates business-to-consumer (B2C) sales. The UN Economic Commission for Africa is helping to bring unique African products and their promoters to the platform in a practical COVID-19 response move. The sale was made by the Rwandan brand known as Gorilla's Coffee whose CEO, Mr. David Ngarabe, rejoiced at the feat following months of slack business as the COVID-19 lockdowns ruptured the supply chains especially to cafés and hotels. The cash-in is explained in terms of the wide reach to customers especially in China via the eWTP whose huge demand, in terms of economies of scale, would now lower overall freighting costs for the supplies. Ms. Vera Songwe, Under-Secretary-General of United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), who addressed participants of the livestream from Addis Ababa, said the Commission was taking action to getting many more small brands from Africa with distinct products to access the platform and make sales during and after the current health crisis....

Joseph Ebalo, the Amuru district Internal Security Officer (ISO) says currently there are over 600 trucks parked inside and outside the designated parking yard. He says the genesis of the truck congestion is from South Sudan because of  inadequate deployment of personnel controlling the customs and immigration offices on their side. Michael Lakony, Amuru district LCV chairperson says some of the petroleum truck drivers have even resorted to siphoning fuel and sell to local dealers which increases the risk of a fire outbreak. According to Lakony, some of the commercial sex workers within the town council have also resorted to renting houses where they take the truck drivers as they wait for clearance from the customs and immigration offices. Lakony observes that this is also increasing the risk of spreading of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in case any of the drivers tests positive. Lakony now wants a police fire fighting truck deployed at the town council in case of any outbreak as well as security increased at the town council so that the girls and drivers are arrested to avert possible spread of the coronavirus and also other sexually transmitted infections. Ezekiel Emitu, the Aswa region police commander says they contacted the director fire department at the police headquarters so that a fire fighter truck is deployed in the area. Richard Omony, a resident and a vendor at Elegu border market says they are living in fear that another fire outbreak could occur given the number of truck drivers transporting fuel....



Global trade is predicted to fall by a record 27% in the second quarter of 2020, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), an organisation that tracks trade flows. This comes after the coronavirus pandemic distorted the supply and demand for products across the world leading to a severe decline in world trade. There has also been a slump in the export of cars, machine parts, and oil, among other global exports. Almost every category of goods is expected to suffer a fall in trade over the coming months, adding to a 3% decline in the first quarter of the year. According to UNCTAD, the report revealed a huge shock to the global economy from the Covid-19 pandemic. China was the first country to report a decline in trade ahead of a lockdown put in place by the authorities in Beijing in February. The country’s economy shrunk by 6.8% percent in the first quarter of this year. However, China also reported that her trade and Africa plummeted by around 14 per cent estimated at $41 billion in the first three months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, according to official figures released by China’s General Administration of Customs. The rest of the developed world followed in March when similar lockdowns were announced. Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that a previous forecast for an unprecedented decline in global GDP growth of 3% this year, the worst since the 1930s depression era, was looking optimistic. The...