The East African Community ( EAC) plans to open 15 one-stop border posts to reduce the time taken to clear goods and services. Alfred Kitolo, a director with the State Department of East African Affairs in the Ministry of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism, said this would reduce the time spent at the border by 30 to 40 per cent. Mr Kitolo said agencies from adjoining states would be housed in one building to promote trade and investment within the EAC. He was speaking during a three-day capacity building forum on operational procedures of one-stop border posts at the Lunga Lunga border post yesterday. Participants included officials from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), security departments, national and county governments, Kenya Bureau of Standards, the Kenya Trade Network Agency, the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service, the Kenya Wildlife Service and business community representatives. Kitolo said the Lunga Lunga one-stop border post would be handed over to the facility management and trade facilitation committee in September once it was completed. IMPROVE FLOW Kwale County Executive for Trade and Co-operatives, Safina Tsungu, commended the EAC member states for building one-stop border posts, saying it would deepen the EAC integration process and improve the free flow of goods and services across common boundaries. James Kivuva, senior assistant director in the State Department of East African Affairs, said parties agreed that respective officials should jointly conduct physical inspection and searches under the Kenya-Tanzania-Bilateral Agreement. Among the border posts under construction are Kabanga/Kobero at the Tanzania-Rwanda...

Any assumptions that East Africa was short of money to finance a number of its key projects were put to rest during a dinner for three presidents attending the Northern Corridor infrastructure summit on Friday night, with private sector players saying the region needed to offer a conducive environment for more capital to roll in. Making a strong case for the banking industry's ability to fund investment projects, Patrick Mweheire, the chief executive at Stanbic bank Uganda, the largest in the country in terms of assets, said: "The irony is that capital is no longer a scarce resource anymore." He explained that some of the top private equity funds were "looking for yield in the region," meaning that foreign players were willing to spend money on investments that could bring them higher interest earnings. Private equity funds usually channel money through financial institutions such as banks. A report by Ernst and Young, released last year, notes that East Africa will continue to attract private equity funds for the years ahead. "As growth rates declined across most of the developed world in the aftermath of the credit crunch, private equity (PE) firms turned to emerging markets as an engine of growth," the report, titled Private Equity Roundup Africa, noted. It further noted that "East Africa (consisting of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi) will be attractive partly because it is doing more than most other African regions to become integrated, thereby facilitating easier cross-border activity and attracting investors." The report pointed...

The Kenya Revenue Authority has proposed amendments to some laws to help it fight smuggling through the port of Mombasa. The authority cited failure to police Kenya’s borders, which have become increasingly porous, as enabling the entry of illegal goods, including wildlife trophies. The Parliamentary committee of Environment and Natural Resources visited the port on Thursday to establish why it has become a transit point for illegal goods. The deputy commissioner of Customs, Nicholas Kinoti, said there is a need to amend the laws that have allowed illegal trade to flourish. “For instance, an export manifest is valid for 30 days and we are asking parliament to amend the law and reduce it to 14 days. This will ensure that cargo does not stay for too long at the port before it is exported,” he said. On April 20, four tonnes of ivory was seized at Bangkok’s main port in a container shipped from Mombasa port, but originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo, destined for Laos. And on April 25, 511 pieces of ivory, weighing over three tonnes and worth $6 million, were found in Bangkok, Thailand, in a container marked as “tea leaves” transported from Mombasa and also destined for Laos. The East African Tea Trade Association had entered into an agreement with KRA in which tea containers were not subjected to scanning due to the high volumes exported daily. Instead, they were loaded under the supervision of Customs officers, a loophole that ivory traders are said to...

Infrastructure development is the key highlight in this year’s national budgets for East African Community partner states. A big chunk of the governments’ money has been allocated to construction of roads, railways, an oil pipeline, harmonisation of axle load controls and service automation at border points. Most of the countries’ outlays are expected to support ongoing infrastructure development in roads, standard gauge railway, ports, energy and security. A part of this development budget will be funded by project loans and grants from development partners, while the balance will be financed from domestic resources. However, as per the budgets, the African Development Bank, the World Bank and the European Union are financing most infrastructure projects with a regional dimension. The East African countries have been negotiating with the development partners as well as individual countries, particularly China and India, in efforts to raise the required resources. The regional infrastructure projects are expected to cost at least $100 billion in the 2015/2016 financial year. Uganda has a budgetary allocation of Ush101 billion ($32.5 million) for power projects; Ush35 billion ($11.3 million) for the acquisition of land for construction of the oil refinery and Ush4.5 billion ($1.45 million) for the Kampala-Kigali standard gauge railway line. Uganda will also invest heavily in scaling up oil and gas exploration and production, build petroleum infrastructure and the related pipelines for distribution, operations and management, development of an oil refinery and the development and implementation of a communications strategy for the oil and gas industry in the...

South Africa and the other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations need jobs, growth and greater competitiveness. Europe needs jobs, growth and greater competitiveness. The US too, needs much the same. Better trading terms are key to securing these goals for businesses and consumers. The World Trade Organisation plays a key role in the adjudication of multilateral trade agreements and their implementation and enforcement, but it has not been as dynamic in recent years — with the failure so far of the Doha Round — in the negotiation of major multilateral deals. It secured the Bali trade facilitation deal recently with helpful Customs progress, but even that was a somewhat tortuous process. Bilateral, pluri-lateral and issue-specific deals are, therefore, filling the negotiations void left by the WTO. They are aimed at driving progress and helping to prevent any nascent protectionism. The EU and US have both concluded deals with Korea. And the EU with Canada and with Singapore and, on goods for example, with the East African Community. The EU has embarked on a major bilateral programme with the US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) — a potentially landmark agreement, going beyond tariffs into the depth of regulatory coherence and convergence, Japan, some ASEAN and Latin American nations, and potentially India. It has also started an investment agreement dialogue with China, and is now looking to overhaul its free trade deal with Mexico. The US has done likewise, including its flagship Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with 12 nations including...

NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Trade associations and senior officials from East Africa are considering introducing an international trade system to enable freer transportation of goods between neighboring countries, officials have said. Commonwealth Secretariat said the officials from the region are due to meet in Tanzania next week to address national and regional issues relating to implementing the Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) system in East Africa. "This meeting will provide a crucial platform to work towards embedding a standardized system in local and regional infrastructure," Commonwealth Secretariat’s Deputy Secretary- General Deodat Maharaj said in a statement sent to Xinhua in Nairobi. Maharaj said the Secretariat will continue to support trade facilitating measures in Sub-Saharan Africa, helping countries establish mutually beneficial systems that will create enhanced economic opportunities for the people of the region. The June 8-9 meeting serves as an important initiative to facilitate trade and thus boost economic growth in East Africa. The TIR system, which was established by the UN Economic Commission for Europe in 1975, was designed to allow unhindered transport of goods between countries, mainly by road. The initiative replaces time consuming border checks with the TIR carnet – a universal permit that complies with international standards and provides customs officials with necessary guarantees. Maharaj noted that formalizing trade facilitating measures would boost economic growth in the region, but greater collaboration would be necessary to achieve this. He said 70 countries across the world have signed up to the TIR convention while more than 40,000 international transport operators...

CAIRO: The eighth meeting of the biggest African economic blocs’ tripartite summit has launched Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh, to establish a free trade zone between the 26 member states, Youm7 reported. The African blocs are Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC.) The meeting will witness the signing of the African Trade Zone (AFTZ) agreement between Africa’s top three economic blocks, which will be merged into a new 26-nation free trade zone. An official meeting between trade ministers of the 26 African states is to be held Monday and the meetings will end by the presidential summit on June 10, according to Egyptian Commercial Service chairman, Ali al-Leithy. Presidents of the countries are to arrive in Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday, preparing to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s meeting with them Wednesday, Youm7 reported. “Hosting an event that big assures that Egypt regains its leading role in the African continent,” Leithy said. Moreover, a press conference will be held on Monday, in the presence of Egypt’s Minister of Trade, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour and the ministers of the 26 countries, to announce the results reached during the close discussions. This agreement will facilitate reaching 625 million consumers from South Africa to Egypt, and create a free trade union comprising more than 60 percent of the continent’s economic activity, according to Kenyan business newspaper Business Daily Africa. Source: The Cairo Post

Cape Town (AFP) - The launch of a free trade agreement by three African economic blocs in Egypt this week will be an important step towards a potentially game-changing common market spanning the continent, supporters say. The deal between the East African Community, Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa will create a market of 26 countries with a population of 625 million and gross domestic product of more than $1 trillion. The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) will be inaugurated at a summit of heads of state and government on Wednesday in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt after four years of negotiations to establish a framework for tariff preferences and other commitments. "The launch of the TFTA is a significant milestone for the African continent," the South African government said. "We believe that this sends a powerful message that Africa is committed to its economic integration agenda and in creating a conducive environment for trade and investment." The move was welcomed by business leaders at the World Economic Summit for Africa in Cape Town last week, with participants highlighting the fact that just 12 percent of African countries' total trade is with each other -- compared to some 55 percent in Asia and 70 percent in Europe. "The tripartite trade agreement is really important as a first step for Africa... which then can engage with the European Union and others on a global basis," Michael Rake, BT Group chairman and a co-chair of the forum, said....

NAIROBI, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Trade associations and senior officials from East Africa are considering introducing an international trade system to enable freer transportation of goods between neighboring countries, officials said on Friday. Commonwealth Secretariat said the officials from the region are due to meet in Tanzania next week to address national and regional issues relating to implementing the Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) system in East Africa. "This meeting will provide a crucial platform to work towards embedding a standardized system in local and regional infrastructure," Commonwealth Secretariat's Deputy Secretary- General Deodat Maharaj said in a statement sent to Xinhua in Nairobi. Maharaj said the Secretariat will continue to support trade facilitating measures in Sub-Saharan Africa, helping countries establish mutually beneficial systems that will create enhanced economic opportunities for the people of the region. The June 8-9 meeting serves as an important initiative to facilitate trade and thus boost economic growth in East Africa. The TIR system, which was established by the UN Economic Commission for Europe in 1975, was designed to allow unhindered transport of goods between countries, mainly by road. The initiative replaces time consuming border checks with the TIR carnet – a universal permit that complies with international standards and provides customs officials with necessary guarantees. Maharaj noted that formalizing trade facilitating measures would boost economic growth in the region, but greater collaboration would be necessary to achieve this. He said 70 countries across the world have signed up to the TIR convention while more than 40,000...

KAMPALA, Uganda - Uganda trade and industry minister, Amelia Kyambadde, has asked consultants working on improving trade in East Africa to support women living in border areas to pursue the available opportunities for increasing their incomes. Last week, Kyambadde asked TradeMark Africa (TMA) to focus on educating and empowering informal women traders as a way of causing real impact and reducing poverty in their households. “In most cases, these women end up losing all their goods when they are caught sneaking into another country. Or even risk being charged in courts of law and yet the laws and taxation at the border has been made easy with East African integration." “What is still lacking is empowering these women and educating them about their rights and responsibilities which I am requesting TradeMark to do in their next phase which will begin in 2017 to 2021,” Kyambadde said. She told a workshop attempting to address the issue that women involved in informal cross border trade are not yet informed about their rights and responsibilities as traders. Most of them prefer bribing officers or using ‘panyas’ or illegal routes to smuggle their small items to neighbouring countries. Kyambadde said the main reason is because of their ignorance and the myths associated with taxation which is not the reality. Frank Matseart, the TMA Chief Executive Officer said, although they had invested considerable money in different trade projects, Uganda was still lagging behind its other EAC counterparts in terms of the ease of doing trade....