KAMPALA, Uganda - Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) will begin tracking goods in transit from Mombasa port in Kenya. Initially, URA was only tracking goods in-transit from Busia/Malaba boarders. Commissioner Customs Richard Kamajugo said this during the tour of the URA Transit Monitoring Unit and Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) by a team of European Union delegates. The $5.2 million project was set up in March with support from the government, the World Bank and TradeMark Africa (TMA). TradeMark Africa (TMA) is the lead consultant for the project which is expected to be fully implemented by the end of November. August is a testing period which is ongoing until then. Kamajugo said the Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) that was introduced by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) early this year mainly aims at improving efficiency and reducing the cost of doing business. According to him, ECTS relies on a control centre and automatic devices. The devices are attached onto a truck and constantly give feedback to the team at the control centre. Among others, the feedback includes include location of a vehicle, speed and status of the container that is to say helps notify whether the truck has been tampered with or not. “If the device gives information that is contrary to that declared earlier, for example, goods being dumped here instead of being exported, customs officials make a decision accordingly,” Kamajugo said, The commissioner said there were challenges that made ECTS inevitable. Among them was having to physically escort and monitor...

It was indicated, at the recent 34th Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of States and Governments Summit, that negotiations for the tripartite free trade agreement (FTA), with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC), are at an advanced stage. A timetable for the SADC-COMESA-EAC tripartite FTA, a regional market of 26 countries with a total population of almost 600m people and a total gross domestic product of over USD1 trillion, envisaged the first phase of tariff negotiations on allowing the free market access for goods to be completed by the end of this year, while a second phase would then tackle trade in services and other issues, for finalization of the total agreement in 2016. During his statement to the Summit, President of Malawi Peter Mutharika indicated that "negotiations for the tripartite FTA are at an advanced stage, paving the way for finalization in 2016. … The COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Summit is scheduled for October 2014, at which we shall have the opportunity to review progress with the implementation of the tripartite program to date, and provide further guidance to this process. It is important that we keep the momentum in the tripartite negotiations because it is one of the key building blocks of achieving continental integration." SADC's Director of Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment, Boitumelo Gofhamodimo, is also reported to have confirmed that "we expect to conclude the [goods tariff] negotiations by end of the year. It is one arrangement which...

Mombasa, Kenya: Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) will audit Uganda-bound containers that have been lying at the Port of Mombasa for long. In a telephone interview on Monday, KPA General Manager Operations Twalib Khamis told The Standard the audit will help the authority verify the actual number of Uganda-bound containers that have not been cleared. Overstayed containers at the port have been cited as one of the reasons for cargo congestion at the facility that serves the larger East Africa region. Recent media reports in Uganda claimed that at least 1,600 Uganda-bound containers are stuck at the port. The report added that that there was danger of goods still not collected attracting extra costs or getting lost through auction. Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Customs Commissioner Richard Kamajugo is quoted saying that there was a growing trend where traders fail to clear their goods and later complain when they are auctioned. As a result, URA has been issuing notices to the traders since March to clear their goods to avoid extra costs. "We would have gone ahead to classify and give details of the owners but because of the expenses, we can't afford," Mr Kamajugo said. The URA notice to the traders shows that as of August 4, there were 1,616 Uganda-bound containers at the port. Of these, 756 are 20-feet each while 857 are 40-feet each and all have stayed at the Mombasa Port between 0 and 90 days. The notice further indicates that 1,332 containers have spent between 0 and...