The private sector in Tanzania has called for expedited harmonisation of standards among East African countries to ease trade between member states and increase trade volumes. Tanzania Private Sector director for membership service Louis Accaro said that they have been pushing for harmonisation of standards between Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya for many years and they will continue to do so to benefit traders from all countries. He was speaking during the official launch of Intertek Pre-shipment Verification of Conformity (PVoC) agreement between the British company and Tanzania Bureau of Standards in Dar es Salaam this week. “Without harmonising standards between the three countries and later on among all member states, trade will not grow,” Mr Accaro said. “We believe the main problem towards achieving that end is personal interests amongst traders themselves,” he added. Earlier, Intertek’s government and trade service regional manager Douglas Nyamori said the company supports the harmonisation of standards. “This is a matter of policy. It is a decision that has to be reached by the bureaus of standards of the member states, and we understand that there are ongoing talks on the matter,” Mr Nyamori said. Talks have been ongoing towards integrating PVoC and issuance of certificates of compliance but progress has been slow. EABC notes that although partner states have done a great job on harmonising several standards, many more are yet to be harmonised. Compliance with standards and market requirements are prerequisites for successful market access and improving the competitiveness of exporters in the...

Tanzania and Kenya are yet to resolve the standoff over the testing of goods crossing their borders, subjecting traders from both countries to increased losses. “I have spoken to my Tanzanian counterpart on the release of goods from both sides, pending consultations on a bilateral basis. Although the actual process has to be followed there is no need of holding goods in a manner that is painful to traders,” said Adan Mohamed, Kenya’s EAC Affairs Cabinet Secretary told The East African. The EastAfrican has learnt that the bilateral talks aimed at resolving the stalemate would involve the ministers of trade of the two countries followed by the ministers for EAC Affairs. The ministers were supposed to meet last week. Tanzania started subjecting Kenyan products to quality verification from February 25, after its Kenyan counterparts did the same for three consecutive months. This goes against a mutual agreement on the standards of goods traded within the region. Spirits and tiles are among products from Tanzania that are subjected to quality verification before entering Kenya despite having a Tanzania Bureau of Standards quality mark. According to the acting director for quality management at the TBS Lazaro Msasalaga, the Kenya Bureau of Standards has been taking samples of the products for verification in Nairobi through a process which takes as long as 30 days. As a result, Tanzania retaliated by detaining Kenyan products on its borders for more than seven days pending quality verification. “The consignments will be cleared after conforming to standards and other...

The East African Community Secretariat has sent a team to Rwanda and Uganda to find out the cause of the current hostility between the neighbours. EAC Secretary-General Liberat Mfumukeko said the bloc will “soon” engage the two countries in an effort to seek a solution to the diplomatic and trade dispute that threatens to paralyse cross-border business. “Our experts are in Rwanda and Uganda on a fact-finding mission, and we will have a report soon. From that report, the EAC will engage the partner states. I cannot give a timeframe, but it will be within the next few days,” he told The EastAfrican in Nairobi this past week. Mr Mfumukeko blamed the decline in intra-regional trade on political disputes, tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade, non-conformity to certain measures and the slow pace of the review of the common external tariff. He called on partner states to find solutions to their disputes, saying that whenever goods cannot move, businesses suffer. “Our role is to make sure the countries abide by their commitments, and all partner states have signed the Common Market and Customs Union Protocols. We are reminding them that when goods are stuck they are breaching these protocols,” he said. Businesses in the region have incurred huge losses in the past three weeks following the partial closure of the border crossing between Uganda and Rwanda at Gatuna, as relations between the two countries soured. SHUTTLE DIPLOMACY The escalating tensions prompted Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta to engage in shuttle diplomacy, On Monday,...

Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Saturday assured neighboring Uganda that his administration will continue improving the transportation infrastructure for smooth transportation of goods. According to a statement made by the Directorate of Presidential Communication at State House in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, President Magufuli said the construction of the standard gauge railway and the repair of 400 cargo wagons were among the improvement of the transport sector. The statement said President Magufuli made the assurance during talks with Uganda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa who had delivered a special message from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Enditem Source: Top Africa News

EAC ministry wants most state agencies kicked out of customs units at major ports and border points to ease delays in cargo verification and clearance, saving investors tens of millions of shillings in demurrage costs. Adan Mohamed, the Cabinet Secretary for East African Community (EAC) and Regional Development, said only four “critical” certification bodies should be retained at the port of Mombasa, Nairobi’s Inland Container Depot (ICD) as well as major airports and border points such as Busia and Malaba. Key agencies, he told a forum in Nairobi on Wednesday, are Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs), Kenya Ports Authority and Kenya Railways Corporation which oversees freight operations on the standard gauge railway (SGR). Mr Mohamed said he will be writing a recommendation to the Cabinet to cut the agencies involved in customs processes, with the rest called up on need basis. “Our experience trading across the borders for goods coming in and out of the country has been extremely painful. This is because of … 27 agencies operating at the port today all wanting to do checks and inspect things,” Mr Mohamed told reporters in Nairobi. “Sometimes we try to use a hammer to kill a fly because all these agencies are basically jumping onto containers.” Kenya has struggled to streamline SGR freight operations between the port of Mombasa and ICD, causing persistent congestion and delays, resulting in increased storage costs and demurrage charges for investors. Source: Business Daily

All is not sitting well within the East African region. The intrigues and manoeuvrings that have recently characterised Uganda, Rwanda ties must be addressed promptly and expeditiously.  Leaders of the five East African Community member states — Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and later incorporating Rwanda, Burundi and Southern Sudan — and the secretariat bloc have worked hard, setting goals beneficial to the region of about 172 million people, also its key resource.  President Uhuru Kenyatta was over the weekend engaged in shuttle diplomacy aimed at dousing rising voltage between Rwanda and Uganda which have in recent months seen the two fraternal countries trade accusations that ran counter to their mutual interests and those of the bloc.     East African leaders, who form the EAC Summit can ill afford to let their eyes off the ball. And for those in this region the focus, if anybody needed reminding, is the raft of protocols namely the Customs Union, the Common Market, the Monetary Union and ultimately Political Confederation, which anchor the regional dream.  Admittedly, there have been bottlenecks in implementation of the protocols with individual countries tempted to work on their own, thus slowing down integration objectives. This trend has prompted business executives to call on political authorities to show more commitment and catalyse implementation of policies that speed up free movement of goods and people. Uganda and Rwanda, today appear inexplicably on different orbits, with each accusing the other of espionage, unlawful detention of each others citizens, supporting rebels and trade sabotage.  Meanwhile, access...

Rwanda alone, Kenya alone,” said President Uhuru Kenyatta last week, “will not make it, but together, we have tremendous potential to succeed.” Mr Kenyatta had just met Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Kigali in what insiders say was shuttle diplomacy to douse the fires caused by a diplomatic spat between President Kagame and one time ally-turned-foe President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Each side believes the other is plotting to cause mayhem. President Kenyatta then crossed over to Uganda where it is feared a meeting between him and his host, yielded no fruit. Mr Kenyatta’s trip was precipitated by Rwanda’s closure of Gatuna (Katuna in Uganda), a border post in the Southwest region of Uganda. Late last month, Kigali blockaded the border point and even issued a travel advisory to its nationals not to cross into Uganda for what it termed security reasons, gravely curtailing the movement of goods and services across the two countries. We cannot begrudge the Rwanda government its responsibility to warn its citizens of impending danger anywhere. But we hasten to urge caution and ways and means to a quick resolution to the issues at hand. The border matters because it is a trade route to the Rwanda market. This move has hurt businesses, including Kenya’s. Goods cleared at Mombasa Port pass through the post. As such, any hiccup leads to a backlog that could hit traders hard and affect the operations of not just the port, but also the Sh360 billion SGR; President Kenyatta’s brainchild. Less...

DOUANES Des systèmes numériques permettent aux autorités de suivre le parcours des marchandises et de s’assurer que la documentation est en règle. Le commerce transfrontalier en sort renforcé. L’intégration de technologies numériques dans les opérations des postes-frontières d’Afrique de l’Est permet de considérablement réduire les délais de transit et de dédouanement des marchandises. Les commerçants économisent jusqu’à 50 millions d’euros par an. Pour accroître l’efficacité du commerce transfrontalier dans la région, l’organisation à but non lucratif TradeMark Africa (TMA) a introduit 13 One Stop Border Posts (OSBP, Postes de frontière unique) le long des frontières du Burundi, du Kenya, de l’Ouganda, du Rwanda et de la Tanzanie entre 2014 et 2017. Les OSBP combinent les activités des services d’immigration, des douaniers et des autres agences afin que les commerçants n’aient à procéder aux formalités qu’une fois dans chaque direction. Auparavant, à la frontière entre la Tanzanie et le Burundi, il arrivait que les commerçants fassent la queue pendant douze heures pour déclarer leurs marchandises auprès des douaniers, qui devaient ensuite procéder à une inspection physique de leur cargaison du côté tanzanien de la frontière. Les commerçants devaient ensuite se plier aux procédures d'immigration, avant de se soumettre à nouveau à l'ensemble du processus pour entrer au Burundi. “Avant, il fallait deux jours pour traverser la frontière. Aujourd’hui, une à deux heures suffisent”, indique Celestin Nzeyimana, responsable du poste-frontière de Kobero au Burundi. Des réseaux TIC centralisés Chaque OSBP dispose de bureaux pour le personnel douanier et les agents de dédouanement, de parkings,...

IMPROVED EFFICIENCY Cross-border trade in East Africa has never been more efficient with the introduction of centralised digital systems that can be accessed by authorities across the region, to monitor the journey of goods and ensure all the necessary documentation is available. With the integration of digital technologies into East Africa’s border post operations, transit and clearance times for goods crossing borders have been significantly reduced, saving traders as much as €50 million annually.TradeMark Africa (TMA) has been leading efforts to increase the efficiency of cross-border trade in the region with the introduction of One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) in 13 locations along the borders of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda between 2014 and 2017. OSBPs are designed to combine the activities of immigration, customs and other agencies on both sides of the border so that traders only have to go through border formalities once in each direction. Previously, at the Tanzania/Burundi border, for example, traders would have to spend up to 12 hours queuing to go through the clearing agent and declare their goods to the customs officers, who would make a physical inspection of their cargo on the Tanzanian side of the border. After the customs officers approved their goods, traders would have to go through immigration procedures, before undergoing the whole process again to enter Burundi. The tedious process cost traders significant time and potential revenue. “Before, it would take 2 days to cross the border,” says Celestin Nzeyimana, the Head Officer at Kobero border post in...

A new initiative is set to be rolled out as part of efforts to comprehensively deal with pollution along the Northern Corridor, a key regional transport artery. The details of the project are contained in concept paper released in January titled ‘Reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) and pollution in the freight transport sector along the Northern Corridor’. The document was done by the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Co-ordination Authority (NCTTCA) and supported by Trade Mark East Africa (TMA). The NCTTCA members are Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Head of Transport policy and planning at NCTTCA Aloys Rusagara said the initiative is part of other projects the organisation rolled out several years ago to mitigate pollution in the maritime sector in line with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules on greenhouse gas emissions. “The policy organs directed the NCTTCA to implement the green road freight program between its member states in 2016 and by 2017, we had already done a baseline survey for emissions at the Port of Mombasa,” Mr Rusagara told Shipping at the organisation’s offices in Mombasa. The NCTTCA was charged with assessing the level of pollution from the port to the final destination of the goods “We have already drafted a work plan towards achieving that programme aimed at meeting the directive in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and entire pollution within the transport sector, from the Port of Mombasa to the final destination of the consignments,” he...