Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) and TradeMark Africa (TMA)’s decade-long partnership to ensure standards and conformity assessment services are at the heart of fast-tracking trade have yielded tremendous results. Aside from reduced time required to purchase Rwanda’s standards from 5.2 days before 2021 to 4.1 hours after automating RSB’s systems, the interventions positioned 20 agrifood enterprises in the country to comply with ISO 22000 Food Management System (FSMS)/RS 184 Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), which are vital requirements for food safety. These certifications have been instrumental in the successful implementation of the Rwanda National Meetings, Incentives, Conferences/Conventions and Events/Exhibitions (MICE) Tourism Strategy. Local consultants, enterprise trainees, 60 youthful graduates and RSB auditors underwent capacity building on FSMS, HACCP and related Pre-requisite Programmes (PRPs). These efforts ensure that Rwanda is complying with international standard requirements for bodies providing management systems certification, thereby enhancing producer firms’ credibility and confidence in their activities, processes, products, services. This in turn ensures competitiveness at the local and international markets. Visitors to Rwanda can now enjoy safe, seamless and world class experiences at the country’s hospitality establishments. Rwanda Development Board (RDB)’s 2022 Annual Report showed that the country’s MICE industry continued an impressive growth streak and generated a total of $64.4 million from hosting 104 events attended by more than 35,000 delegates. For more insights, read the Rwanda Standards Journal with an exclusive focus on the partnership between Rwanda Standards Board and TradeMark Africa in advancing standardisation and conformity assessment in Rwanda. [download id="66923"]

TradeMark East Africa facilitated a training for Ethiopian Freight Forwarders and Shipping Agents Association (EFFSAA) to prepare them to take advantage of initiatives such as Free Trade Zones and the opportunities in regional and international trade. The two-week training is part of the larger Ethiopia-Djibouti Transport Corridor programme funded by the European Union (EU), through the French Development Agency (AFD). The freight forwarding, shipping and logistical sector actors play a major role in the operationalisation of Free Trade Zones (FTZ), a new concept in Ethiopia, and their knowledge on this area is limited. The Dire Dawa Free Trade Zone is the first such landmark in the country.   Acting as exchange hubs where imports and exports of goods are handled at designated customs bonded areas, Free Trade Zones are designed to promote international trade in their role as either trade or manufacturing hubs. They, therefore, rely on processes conducted by skilled and highly integrated logistics service operators with an eye on overseas markets. According to Abenet Bekele Haile, TradeMark East Africa Deputy Country Director for Ethiopia, the training happened at an opportune time of widespread regional trade facilitation initiatives aimed at improving export competitiveness and eliminating trade obstacles. “This is part of the private sector capacity-building process for freight forwarders, clearing agents, and shipping agents. These are critical stakeholders in the operationalisation and success of the Free Trade Zone, which is tipped to be a major transactional centre for cargo along the Djibouti corridor in the future,” he said. The...

Despite being major economic drivers, many small and medium sized women traders in Africa face numerous challenges. Many of them operate informally and are inadequately supported to take maximum advantage of opportunities of formal cross-border trade in high value products. Empowering such traders through targeted interventions is bearing substantial gains through jobs creation and improved incomes from exports of high-quality value-added products. Recently, a group of small and medium-sized women traders in Kenya who are part of TradeMark East Africa (TradeMark) Women in Trade Programme recounted their experiences, opportunities, and challenges they face in their involvement in trade during a meeting held at the Irish Ambassador’s residence in Nairobi. They also highlighted some of the impacts of the interventions. TradeMark CEO David Beer and Ambassador of Ireland to Kenya Fionnuala Quinlan, graced the occasion. The Women in Trade Programme seeks to strengthen the capacity of women traders to increase their incomes and reduce their vulnerability to exploitation and harassment across the East Africa Region.  The total funding to the programme across Eastern Africa stands at US$9.5 million, with support from the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, the European Union and Ireland. By end of October 2022, the programme had impacted over 107,824 women cross border traders, set up information centres across 14 border crossing points in the region and built capacity of 3,500 women led SMEs to link them to markets. In Kenya, TradeMark is implementing this initiative with Partner Africa, TruTrade and Sauti East Africa. Among other interventions, The Ireland Embassy...

Africa’s significant growth potential is being constrained by low trading volumes both within the continent and exporting from it. Trade infrastructure gaps, unaligned regulatory environments and non-tariff barriers (NTBs) make life hard for exporters, leading to a predominance of primary goods in the export portfolio, and a host of lost opportunities to boost intra-African trade. Breaking down these barriers would not only raise the continent’s share of global trade, but also lift millions of people out of poverty. The journey to solve the challenges of implementing a continent-wide free trade agenda requires concerted efforts by all partners, according to David Beer, CEO of TradeMark East Africa (TradeMark) in remarks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s 94th Session of the Subcommittee on LDCs on October 20, 2022. Results so far As an Aid-for-Trade donor-funded institution, TradeMark, has achieved substantial results in driving down the cost and time of trading across borders, not least reducing the time to cross One Stop Border Posts supported by TradeMark by an average of 70%, and reducing dwell time at Mombasa and Dar Es Salaam ports by half. Major gains have also been realised from public-private sector dialogue, especially in reducing NTBs. For instance, in 2021 we helped the East African Business Community engage the Kenyan government to increase aflatoxin testing capacity for grain at the border with Uganda. This reduced delays, post-harvest losses and operating costs for firms, with the Central Bank of Uganda estimating the country could have lost $121 million in annual revenue...

From 12th -18th September, the East Africa Community (EAC) Secretariat, in partnership with TradeMark East Africa (TradeMark), convened a Regional Task Force (RTF) meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, aimed at discussing and compiling a comprehensive list of all levies, fees and charges within the EAC for harmonisation and removal. This is the first of such meetings, with subsequent convenings scheduled to be held regularly. At the end of this exercise, the task force will have a database of all EAC levies, fees, and charges, bringing about predictability and eventually removing discriminatory and restrictive effects of these charges on intra-EAC trade. The RTF is comprised of the following EAC Member States, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which joined the EAC recently, is not part of the current RTF. The RTF is guided by the EAC Sectoral Council of Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment (SCTIFI) and other regional laws, including the Customs Union Protocols and the Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) Act. A   recent article by TradeMark noted that the quick resolution of NTBs has improved EAC citizens' welfare by directly increasing trade and revenues, which led to employment creation and indirectly increased household incomes for the traders and consequently enhanced livelihoods. TMEA continues to provide targeted, strategic support to the EAC to catalyse and sustain the integration momentum in the following: Conclusion of the Customs Union (Single Customs Territory), leveraging existing efficient trade facilitation tools, such as customs management systems, electronic Single Windows, Authorised Economic...

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 CEO. He will assume the position from 1st September 2022 and will be based in Nairobi, TMA’s headquarters. David Beer has recently completed his tour as High Commissioner for the United Kingdom (UK) in Malawi. The TMA Board conducted a rigorous selection process to select a CEO with strong experience of the nexus of aid for trade, Governments and diplomacy, multilaterals, and development, positioning him to provide continuity of purpose.  Mr. Beer has over 20 years’ senior international experience within these sectors. He previously represented the UK, advising respective UK Executive Directors to the Boards of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on areas such as institutional risk management, adaptive programming and disaster risk financing, alongside macro-economic management and development programming. This builds on many years of leading development efforts for the British Government and other organisations across Africa, including Uganda, Sudan, Burundi, and Ghana. Mr. Beer joins TMA at a time when the organisation is expanding to the rest of Africa and scaling up support for the implementation of Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement. TMA has innovated its programming to not only reduce trade barriers through improved transportation and logistics systems, digitalisation of...

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 East Africa (TMEA), and succeeds Mr. Frank Matsaert, TMEA’s founding CEO. He will assume the position from 1st September 2022 and will be based in Nairobi, TMEA’s headquarters. David Beer has recently completed his tour as High Commissioner for the United Kingdom (UK) in Malawi. The TMEA Board conducted a rigorous selection process to select a CEO with strong experience of the nexus of aid for trade, Governments and diplomacy, multilaterals, and development, positioning him to provide continuity of purpose.  Mr. Beer has over 20 years’ senior international experience within these sectors. He previously represented the UK, advising respective UK Executive Directors to the Boards of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on areas such as institutional risk management, adaptive programming and disaster risk financing, alongside macro-economic management and development programming. This builds on many years of leading development efforts for the British Government and other organisations across Africa, including Uganda, Sudan, Burundi, and Ghana. Mr. Beer joins TMEA at a time when the organisation is expanding to the rest of Africa and scaling up support for the implementation of Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement. TMEA has innovated its programming to not only reduce trade barriers through improved transportation and logistics systems, digitalisation...

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 other technical barriers to Trade (TBT). NTBs arise from different measures taken by governments and authorities in the form of government laws, regulations, policies, conditions, restrictions or specific requirements, and private sector business practices, or prohibitions that protect the domestic industries from foreign competition. Classification of NTBs The COMESA-EAC-SADC NTB online reporting mechanism classifies NTBs into eight categories namely: Government Participation in Trade and Restrictive Practices Tolerated by Governments Customs and Administrative Entry Procedures Technical Barriers to Trade Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Measures Specific Limitations Charges on Imports Other Procedural Problems Transport, Clearing and Forwarding Further, an NTB can be classified as Actionable or Non-Actionable. Actionable NTBs are NTBs that can be removed without having to change legislation or a regulation, e.g., misapplication of custom procedures or an arbitrary classification of goods under incorrect HS codes. Non-Actionable NTBs are NTBs that cannot be removed without changing legislation or a regulation, e.g., if a government introduces a law banning the importation of a stable food crop to protect domestic producers or a new legal requirement for labelling of goods. The Case of EAC Since 2004 up to June 2022, EAC had reported 256 NTBs and resolved 234...

[vc_row equal_height="yes" content_placement="top"][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text]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 Africa. ITTS covers the dispatch of made tea from the factory, receiving of the tea by the Warehouse, cataloguing and offering the tea for sale by the Broker, buying of the tea and paying for it by the buyer and the finally collecting the bought tea from the warehouse. According to a recent evaluation, overall costs incurred by tea traders who are producers, brokers and buyers/exporters has reduced from US$4,533 before iTTS) in 2017 to US$1,889 after iTTS in 2021, a reduction of 58% against a target of 15%.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_video link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mbvhDDa6Ns" align="center"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Specifically, the costs that have been eliminated are transactional and logistical and includes key items such as printing costs, travel time and costs, refreshment etc. Additionally, the tea trade cycle time has reduced by 10 days, from 38 days in 2017 to 28 days in 2021. iTTS has remedied limitations in the old manual set-up, such as the lack of in-depth consolidated auction statistics, and limitation on the scale up of the mandatory physical presence in the auction house of participants in the auction. Members can now access real-time information for the entire tea trade cycle. A member can access post-sale...

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 opportunities they hold, as well as the great potential for intra-continental and global trade. Daunting challenges were also quite clear, including the low quality of infrastructure and interconnectivity (hard and soft), limited awareness of cross-border trade potential, differing trade regimes, red tape and differing customs systems, among others. The result of these challenges is not only a choked trade environment attendant to high transport costs but also significantly higher Green House Gas emissions (GHG) along the corridors. Take the Northern Corridor, a leading trade route connecting Mombasa Port, along the Eastern Seaboard of Sub-Saharan Africa, with the region’s 250 million people in East Africa’s hinterland, including the nations of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, DRC, and South Sudan. GHGs are unacceptably high, at 1.72 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is 2.3 times and 1.22 times more than the GHG intensity, in similar corridors, across China and Europe respectively. A growing trade partnership between Europe and Africa demands the modernisation of these crucial trade routes, which will pay great dividends for both Europe and Africa. As the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has demonstrated, there is an urgent need for sustainable connectivity between the continents...