NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- The East African Community (EAC) Member States are fine tuning modalities of setting up a single customs regime in order to promote cross border trade, have officials. Heads of revenue authorities from Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda, who met in Nairobi, said that countries have been harmonizing policy and legislative frameworks to fast-track the establishment of a single customs territory (SCT). "The process of establishing a single customs territory in the region has not encountered any hitches and would be completed in three years time," Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General John Njiraini said in Nairobi. East African Heads of States have approved the uniform customs regime to ease cross border movement of goods and services The regional countries in 2012 commenced the process of establishing a single customs territory as a means to boost cross border trade, revenue collection and ease of doing business. The EAC is targeting the creation of a political federation, a borderless single state made up of the five countries, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, led by a single president and exercising a single foreign policy. To get the vision of a single state in motion, the Arusha-based EAC Secretariat has been working towards a foreign policy, a common defence policy, a customs union, which is currently in place and the Monetary Union, which aims at a single currency. Njiraini noted that significant ground has been covered since the process of establishing a regional customs regime commenced. "We have covered...

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 7 – East African nations are integrating their customs systems to make it possible to have a regional bond for goods in transit. Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General John Njiraini says the bonds scheme is designed to fast-track movement of goods under customs seals in the East Africa region. Value of customs bonds vary from country to country because of different duty rates and valuation of goods. In Kenya, the current procedure requires importers of transit goods to secure a customs bond issued by an insurance company, whilst ‘sensitive’ cargo such as clothes, wines and spirits, tyres and tubes, shoes, electronic goods, second-hand clothes, food commodities (sugar and rice) require a bank or cash guarantee. The customs bond in Uganda is issued by an insurance company and is cancelled upon presentation of a copy CD-COM duly stamped by customs officers of the post of exit. Rwanda also requires a bond in cash. “The adoption of common external tariffs and the introduction of a regional bond guarantee scheme should solve this problem,” said Njiraini during a regional meeting in Nairobi that discussed the implementation of the EAC Single Customs Territory (SCT) projects. The meeting comes ahead of the forthcoming 11th Northern Corridor Integration Projects Summit, to be held in Nairobi. The one day meeting brought together the Commissioners General of Revenue Authorities from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo to discuss cargo clearance time and costs. The commissioners discussed the implementation of the...

The launch of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) by 26 African countries at the beginning of June brings together the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC) and is in line with the long-standing vision of creating an African Economic Union. It is expected that the TFTA will be a building block towards establishing the Continental Free Trade Area by 2017. The TFTA represents a consumer market of about 600 million people and about 58 percent of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product, estimated at US$1.3 trillion. However, Minister of Industrialisation, Trade and SME Development, Immanuel Ngatjizeko, yesterday warned that Namibia needs to increase its industrial capacity to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the TFTA. “Namibia in particular places industrialisation at the centre of its development strategy, hence the need to expand our industrial base is more important now than ever,” said Ngatjizeko during a public seminar on regional and continental economic integration arrangements. He added that his ministry is ready to work with the private sector and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to ensure that the country’s industrial strategy yields results. Ngatjizeko added that policymakers have realised that market liberalisation alone without industrialisation and infrastructure development does not serve the economic purpose, especially in countries like Namibia whose industrial capacity is constrained and not as competitive as other countries. He said for this reason the TFTA emphasises industrialisation and infrastructure development as strategic pillars...

Barack Obama has called for an increase in intra-African trade alongside a renewed economic engagement with the United States, arguing that countries on the continent can do much more to build links with neighbouring states. "The biggest markets for your goods are often right next door. You don't have to just look overseas for growth, you can look internally... it shouldn't be harder for African countries to trade with each other than it is for you to trade with Europe and America," he said. Obama was delivering a keynote speech to the African Union in Addis Ababa, the first sitting US president to address the body since its foundation in 2001. The speech capped off a five-day trip to Kenya and Ethiopia. According to UN figures, the share of intra-African trade in Africa's total trade over the past decade was only about 11 per cent, compared to 70 per cent for Europe. In response, Obama said that the US would step up efforts to encourage regional integration, building on previous US assistance in modernizing customs and border crossings in the East African Community. The president also highlighted US efforts in battling corruption, tackling illicit capital flows and building power capacity on the continent. Obama praised African countries that have torn down barriers to investment, but argued that much more needs to be done to spark business growth on the continent. "In many places in Africa, it's still too hard to start a venture, still too hard to build a business,"...

A new bill against non-tariff barriers that is awaiting assent by the heads of state of East Africa will add legal strength to the push against trade barriers in the region. A new bill against non-tariff barriers that is awaiting assent by the heads of state of East Africa will add legal strength to the push against trade barriers in the region. According to Jim Kabeho a board member of the East African Business Council, the war against the non tariff barriers has always been left to consensus as opposed to strong legal support. Source: NTV

KIGALI Rwanda (Xinhua) -- More than 30 Chinese firms Monday gathered at the East Africa-China business forum in Kigali to explore investment opportunities in the east African country. Han Jun, the president of the East Africa Chinese Chamber of Commerce, expressed interest in east Africa’s regional infrastructure projects, Rwanda’s manufacturing sector and real estate development. Han said their aim is to help attract more Chinese investors into Rwanda and the region. Francis Gatare, the chief executive officer of Rwanda Development Board, said the forum was part of wider efforts to increase Chinese investments in the country. Chinese investments in the last five years in Rwanda are valued at more than 170 million U.S. dollars, according to official figures. These include Rwanda’s exports to China and Rwanda’s imports from China. China is Africa’s largest trading partner with the value of trade increasing 20 times in the past 15 years to reach 200 billion U.S. dollars last year. Chinese business co-operation with Africa is in areas of construction, trade, and engineering among other things. Gatare called for more sustainable investments between the two countries. Benjamin Gasamagera, the chairman of Rwanda’s private sector federation said they are looking at tapping into China’s growing trade with Africa. Rwanda has been hailed for its strong economic growth, high rankings in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index. The government has also undertaken a series of pro-investment policy reforms aiming to improve Rwanda’s investment climate and increase other foreign direct investment. The Government this year...

Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria Joseph Odumodu, discuses how the Africa Standards Organisation under his leadership, is enhancing trade on the continent, he spoke with Crusoe Osagie. Excerpts: As President of ARSO, what stage are you now in terms of harmonisation of standards across the region and the enhancement of intra-African trade? I will like to do some introductions. In 1991 I think, there was what they call the Abuja treaty and it was in that treaty ‎that African countries talked about the creation of Africa economic community. I do recall again that in that treaty, they identified the importance of quality infrastructure in the development of the African continent and there were other issues that they highlighted at that time, pointing out that African countries were not trading with each other enough but trading with other economic communities. What was also identified as a major constraint was the fact that we were already used to the quality of products coming from other continents but apparently, we do not trust each other about the quality of products we were circulating amongst ourselves. ARSO was actually formed about 50 years ago by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), but I must say that not much was done after the formation of ARSO in terms of using it as a vehicle for creating economic development for Africa. Just as in the case of Nigeria, nobody thought of how we can use standards to develop our economy. Today, at least...

A renewed sense of urgency to get things done characterised last Friday's inter-state council meeting of ministers from Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and DR Congo as they discussed how to make the central corridor, East Africa's hotbed for trade. The meeting, held in the serenity of the Lake Kivu Serena Hotel in Rubavu District, saw ministers approving more than 20 ambitious projects to be jointly implemented by the Central Corridor partners. Perhaps the most exciting of the projects is the proposed multi-billion dollar standard gauge railway connecting Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and DR Congo to Dar es Salaam port whose construction is to be launched in August 30. Also, this month, Dar es Salaam port will open offices in Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. Initially to be housed at the Tanzanian embassies in the respective countries, the move is aimed at getting the port closer to traders, said Dr Shaaban Mwinjaka, the permanent secretary in Tanzania's transport ministry. With Kenya ports authority already running an office in Kigali, renewed efforts to improve trade facilitation on the Northern and Central Corridors is gradually giving way to healthy competition between East Africa's two ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. That competition, according to analysts, will boost regional trade and ease transportation costs and lead to a positive effect on the final prices of goods and services. A good example is the recent launch of block trains bound for Uganda and Rwanda via Isaka-Mwanza and to Burundi and DR Congo via Kigoma, seen as...

The tax bodies of the region have rolled out a scheme to consolidate gains from local Customs incentives in order to increase import revenues and minimise trade bottlenecks faced by business people while clearing goods. The Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) scheme allows accredited firms to enjoy shorter turnaround times for clearing goods at border points across the region and faster verification checks, according to officials. Local AEO schemes offer faster Customs clearing procedures to gazetted firms within national borders. Leveraging efficiency gains By leveraging the efficiency gains generated by the Single Customs Territory arrangement rolled out in February 2013, regional AEO firms could register Customs turnaround times of one day on certain trade routes compared with the current three-and-a-half days, sources said. Richard Kamajugo, a trade and Customs expert based at Trademark East Africa said: “For example, cargo consignments between Kampala and Katuna border station will take less than a day for beneficiaries.” Over the medium term, businesses should post higher profits due to the cost-saving thus effected. The AEO model is the brainchild of the World Customs Organisation, which offers incentives to importers and exporters for the purpose of improving tax compliance, increasing revenues from Customs transactions and boosting efficiency levels among beneficiary companies. After nearly three years of preparation, 13 pioneer firms were awarded regional AEO status last month, with revenue officials citing delays in resolving tax-related queries concerning selected businesses as a major challenge during the vetting process. Eligible firms were selected from the pool of existing...

Central Corridor member states are finding it difficult to attract private investors to finance prioritised infrastructure projects because of the huge financial outlay and the delayed return on investment involved. This puts the governments under pressure to either finance the projects from their budgets, or mobilise donors to fund the activities. These financing issues were raised last week during the 4th Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA) regional task force meeting to review the Presidential Round Table (PRT) resolutions and finalisation of an implementation plan. “What private investors want is to put money in projects that make quick returns, but projects like railways are long term and this is partly why the private sector is shunning these projects,” said George Rukara, Assistant Commissioner of Water and Rail Transport Regulation in Uganda’s Ministry of Works and Transport. The five Central Corridor member states are Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unlike Tanzania, the other Central Corridor members are landlocked and any efforts to access to the sea would facilitate trade. Drawing funds from their coffers would strain regional governments given that some have a tight budget for domestic expenditure and the Central Corridor projects have not been included in this year’s fiscal budget. Member states have the huge task of securing funds to finance more than 10 new joint development projects that have been prioritised and will be jointly owned and funded. The projects are to enhance intra-regional trade by lowering the cost of doing business...