This brief summarises and sets in context the results of the UK Department for International Development – DFID (now part of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office – FCDO). Commissioned independent evaluation of TradeMark Africa (TMA) programmes, which includes support to the removal of Non-Tariff Barriers. With a focus on the East African Community (EAC) states (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan), TMA’s programme aims to support poverty alleviation for all, through a range of interventions implemented at the national and regional level. Key messages TMA’s work has contributed to eliminating NTBs in the EAC; TMA has deployed stakeholders effectively in its NTBs elimination activities, and it has mainstreamed gender considerations into its NTBs work; Results have included faster trade along the EAC trade corridors, and considerable savings from reduced trade times and simpler, quicker procedures. TMA’s NTBs work programme supports the reduction of trade times and costs in the region, but its precise impact is difficult to measure due to challenges in the monitoring and reporting system; Despite TMA’s contribution to eliminating NTBs, the number of barriers has increased due to increased protectionism and political and economic tensions between EAC countries; It is suggested that TMA’s ongoing work on NTBs should focus on the political economy of these barriers, to understand 1) how and why they arise, and 2) what are the conditions that would enable governments in the EAC to set up a sustainable mechanism to eliminate NTBs. Download the full document below [download id="56460"]  

Trade has evolved over the years from just being the engine for economic growth to being more responsive to equitable development, environmental stewardship, and green growth. Sustainable trade requires countries to tread carefully in balancing the triple bottom line of people, profits, and planet – each being dependent on the other. International standards aid this by providing a harmonized, stable and globally recognized framework for countries and business to operate and trade sustainably. In the context of sustainable trade, international standards help industries to proactively balance their short and medium-term goals with long-term resilience, minimise non-tariff barriers to trade, invest in efficient low carbon technologies and diversify their export mix. The standards also play a key role in strengthening social capital, reducing carbon emissions and climate change effects, and promoting sustainable use of natural resources by committing to high environmental and social standards in trade agreements. The greening of trade ensures that production, processing, transportation and trading of goods and services consider environmental impacts and basic human rights including gender equality and labour standards. A rapidly growing and lucrative “green market” exists for these sustainably produced low carbon products and developing countries can tap into such markets especially in developed countries by diversifying more into green/ environmental goods and services to remain competitive. Similar issues are assessed by foreign corporations when deciding where to invest their capital, technology, and expertise which is of importance to any country aiming at improving their ranking in the development ladder. This year’s World Standards...

By Andrew Mold and Anthony Mveyange from Brookings institute  At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, such was the scale of the economic disruption caused by lockdown measures that there was much talk of the collapse of global trade. In the midst of the lockdowns, in April, the World Trade Organization estimated that the decline would amount from anywhere between 13 and 32 percent. In a similar vein, UNCTAD was forecasting a 20 percent decline in global trade for 2020. However, recently released trade statistics across the world reveal that those forecasts may have been overly pessimistic and underestimated the relative resilience of the global trading system. In fact, in June, after several months of sharp declines, trade volumes recorded their biggest monthly rise on record, with a 7.6 percent increase. East Africa may be shadowing these global trends. Kenya, the largest regional trader, is a good barometer of broader East African trends. The country was initially hit quite hard in terms of the decline in trade volumes, with a 19 percent drop in total trade volumes in April. As warned in our earlier Brookings policy brief, re-exports to the rest of the region were hit extremely hard, with a 83 percent decline in April. Since June, though, total trade volumes have begun to recover rapidly, with a 9 percent increase in June and a 12 percent increase in July (Table 1). Moreover, the story is a similar if the analysis is undertaken using year-on-year percent changes. Table 1. Kenyan trade, percent monthly change, January-July 2020 Total exports Re-exports...

The launch of the new Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) last week provides an excellent opportunity to reset the UK’s economic engagement with low- and middle-income countries. As the new department takes shape, it is crucial to consider the stated benefits of bringing development and diplomacy together through this merger of the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). One area in which the benefits could be large and visible is economic development, but so far there has been little attention to the role of the FCDO as an economics ministry. This is perhaps surprising: DFID is rightly proud of its recent experience in managing economic development programmes such as Trademark East Africa and Nepal’s Economic Policy Incubator. A new set of essays, published last week by ODI, considers 10 ways the experience of the FCO and DFID could underpin economic policy in the FCDO. Ten new opportunities for the FCDO The essays offer 10 economic development proposals for an imaginative new approach to capitalise on mutual interest and help achieve development goals. They are: 1. Publish a coherent UK–Africa strategy This must help to reinvigorate UK-Africa trade and investment relationships following a decade of stagnation, during which time Africa has stepped up engagement with other parts of the world. Leaving the EU means the UK needs to consider new trading arrangements with African countries, which are set to integrate through the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The UK-Africa Investment Summit in January also needs follow up. It is time for an ambitious Africa strategy. 2....

The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented disruption to the global economy and world trade. Many countries have locked down their borders, or severely restricted freedoms in a bid to contain community transmission of the virus. Globally, 3 billion people depend on international trade for their food security; a huge number of them are in Africa. It is for this reason that markets must be kept open. Countries should refrain from export restrictions. Trade restrictions should be targeted, temporary, and proportionate, and in line with WTO obligations. Unjustified trade barriers on food and agricultural products in particular, as well as key production inputs, must be avoided, so that food remains available and any supply chain impact is limited. In light of the risks posed by Covid-19, several countries have increased sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) controls relating to human, animal, and plant health as an emergency measure. For food supply chains, there are risks that may be carried by agricultural and food commodities rendering them unsafe for trade or consumption. Therefore, governments impose measures to address food safety, animal health, and plant health risks associated with production and supply of food or agricultural commodities. Contaminated food is a major source of foodborne disease, the global burden of which is extremely high. Estimates show one in 10 people fall ill every year from eating contaminated food, and 420,000 die as a result.   Invest with Impact. Click here. Current evidence suggests Covid-19 derived from a zoonotic source, namely an animal species in frequent close contact with humans – though...

Tanzania has largely adopted a liberal stance to the fight against the novel virus (The country did not effect border closures and bans on large gatherings like most of her neighbours), there is little doubt that the pandemic has not spared its economy and trade. In the ensuing debate on how best to protect public health, keep crucial supply chains open and by extension the economy moving, the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) has played an important role. At the onset of the pandemic, TPSF made significant contributions in cash and kind towards the government fund to mitigate the impact of the crisis and has to date donated Tsh 9 billion (US$ 4 million). Donations in kind include medical equipment, medical supplies, expertise and other non-medical facilities and equipment required for containing Covid-19. TPSF has remained unequivocal that a joint and collaborative approach between the government and the private sector will be key in addressing the Covid-19 crisis. The closure of the Nakonde Border between Tanzania and her southern neighbour Zambia was among a raft of measures that created tensions at the onset of the pandemic.  The closure had not only affected trade between the two countries but also transit cargo to adjacent nations notably the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and parts of Zimbabwe.  TPSF’s role in the dialogue resulted in relaxation of the border controls and movement of hundreds of cargo trucks that had been stranded on either side of the borders. TPSF being a member of the...

If there is anything positive that could be said of the Covid-19 pandemic in Kenya, is that the country quickly learnt from other nations earlier devastated by the plague. Thus, Kenya speedily implemented containment measures among them shutting her airports and borders to keep the virus at bay. Still, local infections were reported and have continued increasing. The private sector quickly aligned itself and has remained a close partner to the state in fighting the pandemic. As infections rose, the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) was at the forefront calling for a declaration of the pandemic as a national disaster, to allow the government’s flexibility and deployment of resources in containing the pandemic. The state responded by restricting movement from Covid-19 hot spots to the rest of the country, as well as dusk to dawn curfews to prevent spreads through entertainment activity. KEPSA has been in close consultation in the gradual re-opening of the economy especially in tourism and travel sectors. The private sector lobby further rooted for expedited issuance of standards for medicaments to quickly boost local production and clearance for export processing zones (EPZ) to trade their merchandise locally, which effectively saw quick adaptation by local manufacturers. This provided the country with the vitally required safety items at a time global supply chains were experiencing acute shortages. As the pandemic spread, ship calls at the port of Mombasa dropped with 37 cancelling their visit to the port in March.  Cargo along the Northern Corridor plummeted by 30%. The...

Nairobi – IOM, the International Organization for Migration, is providing COVID-19 testing to thousands of truck drivers on Kenya’s borders. It’s part of a regional and national effort to fight the global COVID-19 pandemic and reopen trade across the East and Horn of Africa. Over 4,500 truck drivers and crews are being tested for the infection in Malaba and Busia on Kenya’s border with Uganda, where border closures had them waiting for weeks to get moving again. It’s also part of a global effort by IOM. The COVID-19 pandemic control measures put in place around the world are having an unprecedented impact on human mobility. More than 52,000 extraordinary restrictions to mobility have been put into effect by governments and authorities worldwide, while millions of internal migrants have lost their livelihoods in cities where they had been working and now are returning to their places of origin. At the same time—across 10 countries in the East and Horn of Africa—tens of thousands of truck drivers have been unable to transport lifesaving and essential goods, including food, water, medicine, medical equipment and supplies—the very items required to meet the needs of vulnerable communities such as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Since the pandemic, governments in the region have struggled to test truck drivers and reduce the spread of the disease, mainly due to inadequate testing capacity. As of 15 July, more than 2,000 truck drivers in the East and Horn of Africa have tested positive for the disease. “The border points have...

Nairobi – IOM, the International Organization for Migration, is providing COVID-19 testing to thousands of truck drivers on Kenya’s borders. It’s part of a regional and national effort to fight the global COVID-19 pandemic and reopen trade across the East and Horn of Africa. Over 4,500 truck drivers and crews are being tested for the infection in Malaba and Busia on Kenya’s border with Uganda, where border closures had them waiting for weeks to get moving again. It’s also part of a global effort by IOM. The COVID-19 pandemic control measures put in place around the world are having an unprecedented impact on human mobility. More than 52,000 extraordinary restrictions to mobility have been put into effect by governments and authorities worldwide, while millions of internal migrants have lost their livelihoods in cities where they had been working and now are returning to their places of origin. At the same time—across 10 countries in the East and Horn of Africa—tens of thousands of truck drivers have been unable to transport lifesaving and essential goods, including food, water, medicine, medical equipment and supplies—the very items required to meet the needs of vulnerable communities such as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Since the pandemic, governments in the region have struggled to test truck drivers and reduce the spread of the disease, mainly due to inadequate testing capacity. As of 15 July, more than 2,000 truck drivers in the East and Horn of Africa have tested positive for the disease. “The border points have...

This paper uses Kenyan trade data published up through May 2020 to provide a preliminary evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on regional trade in the East African Community (EAC). Paradoxically, given the prevailing pessimism surrounding the prospects for global trade, Kenya actually experienced a significant improvement in exports in the first quarter of the year, together with a moderation of imports, leading to a marked decline in the trade deficit. While the initial shock to Kenyan trade caused by the COVID-19 crisis initially looked dramatic in terms of the declines registered, this paper reveals that i) the shock is not so alarming when seasonality is taken into account; ii) re-exports and imports have been the primary foci of impact; and iii) domestic exports have actually performed extraordinarily well under the circumstances, with incremental growth since 2019. Notably, not all supply chains were disrupted by the crisis, with some Kenyan exports like tea and fruit surpassing levels of years past. Rather, imports have been the principle victim of the crisis, declining by a quarter over the three months since the crisis began (between March and May 2020). Capital goods imports have declined markedly—a trend which, if sustained, could have implications for long-term economic growth. However, the fall in imports of consumer goods could also set the scene for a revitalization of national and regional industry, as local producers step up to fill the void created by the sharp lull in imports. At the same time, Kenya’s EAC neighbors—especially...