ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Vera Songwe, on Thursday emphasized the need to boost intra-Africa trade in order to augment Africa's share in the global trading platform. The ECA chief made the urgent call during a virtual meeting on African perspectives on the World Trade Organization (WTO) and prospects for regional trade cooperation on Thursday, as she emphasized the need to strengthen trade among African countries. "Africa's trade in the global community was 2 percent two decades ago. We are still at 2 percent despite having joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) and having more countries that trade outside the continent more," Songwe told the virtual event. "Let's develop our productive capacity to transform our goods from raw commodities," the ECA Executive Secretary added. According to Songwe, when Africa trades with itself, it creates more value, and whenever it creates more value, it creates more wealth and reduces poverty. "The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement offers countries opportunities to develop regional value chains and increase competitiveness in the global markets," she said. Songwe also noted that African countries are "driving a solidified trade voice and a resoluteness to implement the AfCFTA." "This renewed and reinvigorated approach to trade is necessary for economic growth and job creation on the continent," she stressed. The AfCFTA offers a new hope and continental exhilaration in terms of boosting intra-African trade, facilitating Africa's development and industrialization. According to the ECA, once...

Poor infrastructure, logistical hurdles and high prices are some of the challenges that have affected Africa's food supply. With border closures and night curfews, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these problems. In the busy market of Baba Dogo — a town located northeast of Nairobi, Kenya — Irene Kwira sells clothing she imports from China, Uganda and Tanzania. Kwira's supply chain broke when the coronavirus pandemic hit the world and forced many manufacturing industries to shut down businesses and countries to close borders. Kenya took similar measures to limit the spread of the virus. "This meant that we could not get our goods easily because they could not reach us," Kwira told DW. "So the returns were low and we would buy goods at a higher price because the demand could not match the supply." Kenya closed its borders and allowed only essential goods to be imported and transported throughout the country. The government's decision on what counts as essential services also made Kwira's job of selling her stock exponentially harder. "It's difficult to send goods timely to my customers within the country due to the curfew," Kwira said. Cross border trade in East Africa hampered by the coronavirus Kwira is not the only merchant affected by the pandemic. Shoe seller Nico Manyasia has battled to stay afloat and keep clients happy. "Goods cannot reach the customers in good time," Manyasia said, adding that merchants must wait weeks to get their deliveries. Medical supplies affected in Ghana In Tamale, Ghana's northern region, the road leading to the Janjori...

Uganda is clamping down on informal cross border trade with Tanzania and the unregulated movement of people between the countries, to prevent the spread of coronavirus, in a region where cases of infection have increased. People living in the Rakai District of Uganda and Missenyi in Tanzania tend to ignore border regulations because they live as one community, with families having relatives on both sides. Cross border trade and travel is centred on the town of Mutukula, but people also use unregulated roads, which makes the movement of goods and people between both countries hard to monitor. Some 20 people have recently tested positive for Covid-19 in the region on the Uganda side, after returning from Tanzania. Now, in order to ensure trade continues, while limiting new cases of infection, the authorities in Uganda's Rakai district have banned cross border travel, unless it is for business. The clamp down is being enforced by the Ugandan army, with soldiers ensuring residents in the region comply with the directive. It could raise tensions between the two East African nations and it is not clear how Tanzania will respond. This week it banned flights from Kenya, after the government in Nairobi deemed measures taken by its neighbour to cope with the pandemic were insufficient. Read the original article Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of TradeMark Africa.

COMESA, SADC, and the EAC have adopted common transport and trade guidelines to use during the pandemic. The tripartite guidelines will facilitate the safe movement of goods and services and contain the pandemic within the three trading blocs. It is also an opportunity towards the achievement of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) signed in 2015. According to the trade guidelines, member countries will now treat truck drivers who test positive for COVID-19 in the partner country as opposed to repatriating the crew to the country of origin. Speaking during the harmonization of the trade protocols, COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Task Force Chairperson Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax noted that mobility restrictions during the pandemic have resulted in shortages of goods, thus higher cost of doing business. Similarly, cross border restrictions have led to the stigmatization of truck drivers which threatens efforts to contain the virus. Dr tax, therefore, called for harmonized guidelines for the movement of goods and people, to tackle these challenges, and others to stimulate traffic in the region. Drivers are to use gazetted transit routes along the transport corridor and interconnecting roads. Governments in the region will also designate specific points in the route to allow drivers to recuperate, without risking contact with local communities. The tripartite trade guidelines urge member states to introduce and enhance the pre-clearance of goods and adapt common surveillance systems for both drivers and trucks. Leaders in the regional blocs have also called shipping lines to waive charges on container delays and costs for handling essential goods during...

The launch of the digital Covid-19 certificates by East African Community (EAC) is set for Friday in a move that will curb the use of fake certificates and help in easing of congestion at the crossing points. EAC says the system will be launched at border points of Malaba, Rusumo, and Kobero today (Friday), while at Mutukula crossing point and Namanga it will be effected on August 14 and 21 respectively. Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking system will ease the movement of goods at the border points as it will allow sharing of Covid-19 test results of truck drivers electronically, eliminating the need for physical checks, which has been blamed for causing delays in clearance. The reliance of hard-to-verify manual certificates has been blamed for costly long delays at border points, that sometimes last for weeks. “Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracing System will be launched at border points of Malaba, Rusumo, Kobero, Mutukula and Namanga… this August,” said EAC. The Ministry of Health had in June said the roll-out of the electronic certificate will be implemented once the member states put in place a technology that will link all the laboratories and ensure a seamless operation. The precautionary measures laid down by the ministry are meant to stop the spread of Covid-19 along transport corridors after Busia County emerged as the virus hotspot. The move follows claims that truck drivers useg fake certificates to cross to neighbouring countries and into Kenya. It is also designed to ensure that truck...

Summary The technology has the capacity to monitor and model human congestion, thereby mapping how the virus is spreading. It is not clear what the starting date would be now but Commissioner Muchanga indicated that his Department was entering into many partnerships with multiple Pan-African stakeholders to ensure that the free trade bloc gets going as early as possible. Contact monitoring can be used in tracking social behavior mobility and the movement of persons from one region to another. But in implementing such a program, organisations involved must protect the data privacy of the persons being monitored. As African airlines get back to international skies this month for the first time since March, their commitment towards minimizing the possibility of an upsurge in Covid-19 infections will be critical in jump starting the air travel business. To help manage the uncertainty among passengers about the health safety of international flights, the African Union (AU) Open Corridor Initiative is supporting a collaboration among pan-African private sector institutions to launch a Consortium to deploy and manage a digital platform that will perform bio-screening and tracing of contacts across borders. Dubbed PanaBIOS, the application, which can be accessed on the web or downloaded from Panabios.org, is already being utilized in Ghana to manage congestion in workplaces and other high-risk locations while enabling digitizing of cross—border travel health clearance to suppress disease importation and transmission. A pilot was initiated on June 1 in Ghana as part of the West African country's Trancop Initiative and then formally...

SUMMARY The resumption of passenger flights signals a reduction on cost of freight charges resulting from additional capacity offering a relief to exporters who have had to content with high rates in the last four months. Passenger airlines, which had been grounded since March, account for 40 percent of the total export freight in the country. Freight charges have remained at a high of Sh321 a kilogramme from Sh197 in the same period in corresponding time last year. The resumption of passenger flights signals a reduction on cost of freight charges resulting from additional capacity offering a relief to exporters who have had to content with high rates in the last four months. Passenger airlines, which had been grounded since March, account for 40 percent of the total export freight in the country. Freight charges have remained at a high of Sh321 a kilogramme from Sh197 in the same period in corresponding time last year. Sanjeev Gadhia, the chief executive officer of Astral Aviation, a Nairobi-based cargo airline forecast a 20 percent cost cut. “Passenger airlines carry up to 40 percent of the total cargo in the country. The increased capacity will see the freight charges come down,” said Mr Gadhia. Exporters say the belly cargo that has been missing since the closure of the airspace in March, plays a significant role in supplementing the cargo flights, hence checking on the high cost. Kenya horticulture industry suffered one of the worst moments in its history after a number of major...

The Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on 29th July, 2020 adopted harmonised Tripartite Guidelines on Trade and Transport Facilitation Guidelines for Safe, Efficient and Cost-Effective Movement of Goods and Services during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Guidelines are aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 whilst facilitating trade and transport of goods and services across the Tripartite area during the COVID-19 pandemic. In his remarks at the opening of the Tripartite Council of Ministers meeting, Honourable Mr Tarek Shalaby, Assistant Minister for Foreign Trade, Agreements and International Relations of the Arab Republic of Egypt, representing the Chairperson of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Council of Ministers said the harmonisation of guidelines on Trade and Transport Facilitation presents an opportunity towards the realisation of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) which was signed by the Tripartite Heads of State and Government in June, 2015. The Minister called for collective action to guarantee movement of goods and services to promote intra-regional trade, while reducing the cost of goods and services within the tripartite area. He added that the attainment of tripartite and continental integration can only be realised with the harmonisation of regional initiatives and overcoming the challenges of overlaps and multiple membership of COMESA, EAC and SADC. On her part, the Chairperson of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Task Force, the Executive Secretary of SADC, Her Excellency Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax, highlighted that the overlapping nature of membership and sharing of traffic...

Thando Mnkandhla Windhoek – The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) is integrating electronic surveillance systems that will not only movement of haulage trucks, but will also track drivers’ health and safety. The integrated surveillance system is part of a package of Guidelines for Safe, Efficient and Cost Effective Movement of Goods and Services during the COVID -19 pandemic as adopted by the Tripartite Council of Ministers on July 29. The TFTA brings together the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Among other matters the ministers would like harmonised are movement of goods – particularly agricultural inputs, food, fuel, and medicines and medical equipment - between countries subject to health and safety regulations. On “Application of Customs Laws and Interpretation”, customs administrations were urged to waive fees, storage and handling charges, and warehouse rent on essential goods during the COVID-19 pandemic. The harmonised regulations establish standard operating procedures for management and monitoring of cross border road transport at designated points of entry and COVID-19 checkpoints, with the objective of facilitating safe movements of passengers and goods. The standard operating procedures cover testing, quarantining, truck stops, catering and sanitation. Representing the Chairperson of the Tripartite Council of Ministers, Egypt’s Assistant Minister of Foreign Trade, Agreements and International Relations, Tarek Shalaby, said the guidelines on trade and transport facilitation presented an opportunity for full implementation of free trade as envisaged when Heads of State and Government signed up for the TFTA...

THE Tripartite Task Force of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East Africa Community and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is in the process of developing a common guideline that would ease cross border movement of goods, services and their people. The guidelines are to be used during and beyond Covid-19 crisis, to address any future health emergencies that might arise for transportation and trade facilitation. In the course, the Regional Economic Communities (REC) has developed an integrated electronic monitoring and surveillance system in a grand move to facilitate the effectiveness of the tripartite guidelines on facilitation of cross-border movement of goods and transport. These were unveiled by the Chairperson of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Task Force, Dr Stergomena Tax, who is also SADC Executive Secretary, while gracing the extraordinary virtual meeting of the tripartite council of ministers. According to her, it was encouraging to note that the RECs guidelines have contributed to improving trade and transport facilitation, and that the need to have harmonised guidelines at the tripartite level, while taking into accounts the importance of tripartite crossborder movement of goods, services and persons to facilitate trade and other socio-economic activities. "With the overlap of RECs membership and the sharing of traffic between and among RECs, the need for harmonised tripartite trade and transport facilitation guidelines for the movement of persons, goods and services across the tripartite region during the Covid-19 pandemic has become more apparent and urgent," she said. Expounding, she said the guidelines are...