TradeMark Africa Announces New Chief Executive Officer
Senior diplomat and development professional, former United Kingdom High Commissioner, adviser at World Bank and IMF boards to lead one of the world’s largest Aid for Trade institutions Nairobi, August 31, 2022: Mr. David Beer has been appointed the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for TradeMark Africa (TMA), and succeeds Mr. Frank Matsaert, TMA’s founding […]
How Non-tariff Barriers Affect Trade in The EAC
Definition of NTBs According to the COMESA-EAC-SADC NTB online reporting mechanism, Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) refer to restrictions that result from prohibitions, conditions, or specific market requirements that make importation or exportation of products difficult and/or costly. NTBs also include unjustified and/or improper application of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) such as sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and […]
Automation of the World’s Biggest Black Tea Auction for Export delivers results one year on
EATTA’s Integrated Tea Trading System (iTTS) which automated the manual trade processes along the tea value chain for traders using the Mombasa Tea Auction has improved efficiency and transparency resulting to reduced costs and time of trading for tea traders, evaluations show. The system is funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs through TradeMark […]
How EU-Africa partnership is unlocking sustainable trade in Africa [Op-Ed]
In the line of my work for an aid-for-trade organisation, I recently traversed key trade corridors across the African continent to assess their current state of play. These include Abidjan-Lagos in the West, Mombasa-Goma in the East and Durban-Lubumbashi to the South. Travelling mainly by road along these crucial trade routes revealed the vast trade […]
Global Pandemic Reaffirms TMEA’s Relevance & Impact
2021 marked an important watershed moment for global trade, as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic started to subside, and countries began to post stronger economic growth. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), global trade touched a high of $28 trillion, 11% growth from pre-pandemic levels. Trade in services is […]
Time To Focus Beyond COVID-19
The better part of the last two financial years have been marked by unprecedented global focus on COVID-19, the global pandemic that took the World by surprise. The numerous natural, economic, and intellectual resources that have been spent to contain the spread of the rapidly-mutating enigmatic disease, and to eradicate it, have been worthwhile. In […]
Combating COVID-19 and Supporting Recovery
The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the globe and disrupted the lives of billions of people in every corner of the world. Eastern Africa has not been left unscathed. The pandemic has affected trade and economic activity in a fundamental way. Whereas many have weighed the impact of COVID-19 on health terms, we in trade facilitation […]
Finland Committed to Doubling Trade with Africa Over Next Decade
Finland Ambassador to Kenya, H.E. Pirkka Tapiola says his country is committed to doubling trade with Africa over the next decade. The ambassador spoke while touring the Port of Mombasa on Friday. The envoy commended the Government of Kenya and Development Partners for supporting Port Reforms and Modernisation Programme over the last decade that has […]
East African women traders: ‘Celebrating the past, planning for the future’
COVID-19 has hit women disproportionately hard across East Africa, especially those working in the informal sector. Lessons must be learnt to prevent this from happening again. Women in East Africa can look back over recent history with a sense of struggle and accomplishment, of regression and progression. Women’s activism was ingrained in many of the […]
Making Trade Green in Kenya & Beyond
Trade and economic growth impact the environment and societies involved either positively through increased incomes, livelihood, and capacity for improved environmental management or negatively through increased industrial pollution and degradation of the environment and natural resources. At the same time environmental hazards and climate change could negatively impact trade by disrupting supply, transport, and distribution […]