Poultry farmers in Kenya want the Ministry of Trade to intervene on the discriminative tariff by the Uganda on chicken meat. Uganda Revenue Authority has in the past two years charged Kenyan chicken meat exports a cumulative 25 per cent in taxes – 18 per cent VAT, one per cent Railway Development Levy and six per cent Withholding Tax. “We want the government to review the taxes charged by our neighbors, both Uganda and Tanzania,'' Kenya Poultry Farmers president Monica Wanjiru said. She added that their plea is to the government to impose tax Uganda poultry imports or for the Ugandan government to waive 19 per cent tax on VAT and Railway Development Levy. The taxes charged by the Uganda, Wanjiru argued, violates World Trade Organization first principle on fair trade. This means that the Uganda poultry products have free access to the Kenyan market while the Kenyan products are hindered from access to Uganda through Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) or imposition of domestic taxes (VAT, withholding taxes or railway levies). Wanjiru added that “Tanzania has also imposed stringent requirements for compliance from the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) which many players in the poultry sector have seen as deliberate efforts to bar them from accessing the market." In 2016,Tanzania banned the importation of poultry and poultry products into the country. “We, therefore, cannot overemphasize the vulnerability of the Kenyan poultry industry from the regional attack,"Wanjiru said. According to the lobby, the most recent impact of such actions by Tanzania culminated...

Over the last few weeks, rumors—and then a few stories—have emerged that the long-expected implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement due on July 1 would be delayed for up to a year while the continent deals with an unprecedented economic crisis in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the African Union hasn’t formally confirmed any intention to pause their plans, it hasn’t seemed totally unrealistic this would be under consideration during such unprecedented times. AfCFTA, which was ratified by enough African countries last year, created the world’s largest free trade zone with a combined GDP of $3.3 trillion. Dropping trade barriers between African countries would boost trade on the continent by over 50%, according to some estimates. Others believe it would double intra-continental trade in Africa. But even with all the practical concerns around a pandemic which is not believed to have peaked yet on the continent, many long time supporters do not believe now is the time to delay the AfCFTA’s implementation—they argue the opposite. “The Continental Free Trade Agreement can be one of the most important tools of our economic recovery,” says Paulo Gomes, a former World Bank executive director and chair of the executive committee of AfroChampions, an African Union-mandated network to coordinate private sector discussions around AfCFTA. “If I’m an African finance minister I don’t have quantitative easing and the money printing money tools of the wealthier economies—trade can be our stimulus.” For Gomes and others this isn’t simply about intra-African...

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam) AS coronavirus pandemic effects are being felt across the East African Community (EAC), the community feels the need to embrace the principle of comparative advan- tage so as to keep business going and bring life back to normalcy. The idea has been floated just a few days after Presi- dent John Magufuli and his Kenyan counterpart, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta conversed and solved a border dispute about truck drivers crossing from one country to another. Tanzania has, from the beginning opted for no lockdown practice and the move has since paid off. Speaking on behalf of EAC Secretary General, Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko, Kenya's EAC Affairs and Regional Development Cabinet Secretary (CS), Mr Adan Mohammed said that the aim of embracing the principle was to keep regional trade going and that EAC remains united and together defeat the Covid-19 for common good. "We must therefore strengthen our trade bond and utilise the principle of comparative advantage to keep regional trade going," said the CS upon handing over mobile labs from the EAC Secretariat to Kenya. "EAC must remain to- gether to defeat this disease for our common good," added Mr Mohammed. The principle refers to an economy's ability to produce goods and services at a lower opportunity cost than that of trade partners. A comparative advantage gives a company the ability to sell goods and services at a lower price than its competi- tors and realise stronger sales margins. The law of comparative advantage is popularly attributed to...

Kenya is the most integrated country in Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), followed by Rwanda and Zambia, the latest Africa Regional Integration Index has revealed. According to the second Africa Regional Integration Index (ARII 2019) released Friday by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development and the African Union Commission (AUC), Kenya scored 0.59 out of possible 1. Rwanda and Zambia came second and third respectively; with Eswatini, and Sudan scoring being the least integrated into the region. According to the report, COMESA’s best performance was in trade, but it has much potential for improvement in all the other dimensions, especially the productive dimension. The 19-member state trading bloc however performed dismally in trade integration when compared to others in the continent, scoring an average of 0.36, slightly above 0.34 scored Southern African Development Community (SADC). ‘‘With the exception of Zambia, no COMESA member achieves more than 0.669 on trade, productive, macroeconomic or infrastructural integration,’’ the report said. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has a moderate average score of 0.425, East African Community (EAC) 0.537, Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) 4.88, Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) 4.42 while Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) scored 0.37. The report observed that although 20 countries score above average, no African country can be considered well integrated into its region. Even the most integrated country, South Africa, scores 0.625 less than two-thirds of its potential on the scale. The report found that much more needs...

In the last few months since reporting the first COVID-19 positive case, African countries have borrowed at least $10 billion in new loans to deal with the adverse impact of the pandemic on livelihoods and economies. These add to mounting debts at a time when tax revenue is shrinking, export earnings are in free fall, and diaspora remittances are drying up. Meant to finance the region’s response to and protect its economies against ensuing disruptions from the virus outbreak, most of those loans have come mainly from the International Monetary Fund, with Africa dominating the lender’s COVID-19 emergency financing list. The Fund late April approved $1.23 billion of emergency funding for Kenya and Uganda, saying the pandemic will likely exact a severe toll on the two East African economies. The $739 million Rapid Credit Facility is meant to boost Kenya’s international reserves to help cover the balance of payments shortfalls this year while also providing resources to improve public health and support for households and companies hit hard by the crisis, the IMF said at the time. In addition to the IMF loan, Kenya has also turned to the World Bank ($6.6 million and $1 billion for budget support), the United States government, as well as raised about $20 million from private sector firms and individuals to finance its COVID-19 response. Among the six East African Community member states, Kenya has borrowed the most with an estimated $2.5 billion secured since March. Uganda meanwhile has added $540.2 million to its...

NAMANGA, KENYA — When Habibu Juma Ali lined up his truck full of Whitedent toothpaste behind hundreds of others waiting to cross the border from Tanzania into Kenya, he didn’t expect to wait two weeks to get tested for the novel coronavirus. Truckers are permitted to drive across the otherwise closed border between East Africa’s two biggest countries, but for the first two months of the pandemic, they had to get tested at the crossing. More than 150 tested positive and were turned back. The rest spent interminable days waiting for their results. Ali has spent his days on both the Kenyan and Tanzanian sides of the border town of Namanga, where, when you’re on foot, you can cross the border as easily as crossing a road. He has bought food at shops, exchanged money at banks and, at night, he sleeps huddled with other drivers on cardboard mats underneath his truck. They cook and share meals with newcomers as the line of waiting trucks grows. Others find racier ways to pass the time — chewing khat, shooting dice, hiring sex workers. The truckers’ growing web of interactions points to a dilemma at international borders: how to let essential trade through without the virus slipping in with it. At a meeting Friday to resolve the growing crisis, Kenya and Tanzania agreed that starting next week, drivers will have to get negative test certificates before starting their journeys. For many of the thousands of truckers who have already spent days or...

Kenya and Tanzania on Friday agreed to reopen their borders after a tense week marked by a simmering trade dispute occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic. Travel guidelines and restrictions rekindled a festering trade war that has seen both countries impose sanctions on each other and ban trade in certain goods. Government officials from both countries, who met in Namanga for the better part of Friday, resolved to facilitate a seamless cross-border movement of goods and end the standoff. Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development Cabinet Secretary James Macharia led a delegation of Kenyan officials to the meeting with the Tanzanian delegation led by Transport Minister Isack Kamwelwe. The bilateral deliberations came after President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Tanzania counterpart President Pombe Magufuli talked over the phone regarding heightened tensions that left traders from both countries staring at huge losses as truck drivers waited for days for results of Covid-19 tests, which are mandatory for them. It took the delegation six hours to break the stalemate in two stormy boardroom meetings, emerging with a memorandum of understanding. MOBILE LAB A source close to the meeting told the Nation that both sides were reluctant to cede ground on the procedure for screening truck drivers. CS Macharia said the two countries must unite to protect their trade interests and address the health concerns of citizens. “Kenya and Tanzania are trade partners, recording a turnover of more than $500 million (Ksh53 billion) annually. We have reached an agreement that Tanzanian and Kenyan drivers will be subjected...

Arusha. The leading horticulture industry’s body Taha has applauded the Tanzania and Kenya’s truce, saying the deal has saved the multi-million dollar agricultural sub-sector and thousands of related jobs. Latest data from the Agriculture ministry shows that horticultural export value had surged to $779 million in the 2018/19 financial year, up from $412 million in 2014/15 becoming the growth driver of the entire agricultural sector, contributing to overall agrarian exports standing at 38 per cent annually. The subsector also employs more than four million Tanzanians, a majority being youths and women. “We are very grateful to our two governments for amicably resolving the trade dispute occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic to allow a seamless cross-border movement of goods” said the Taha Group chief executive officer, Ms Jacquiline Mkindi, who represented Tanzania’s private sector at last week’s ministerial bilateral talks at Namanga border. Ms Mkindi said the border wrangle had put Tanzania’s multi-million dollars horticulture industry at a crossfire, as the lion’s share of horticultural crops is exported through the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and Mombasa port in Kenya. “Had the cold war continued, horticulture would be the first to be affected, as we heavily rely on JKIA and Mombasa port as the main export outlets of our perishable crops to overseas markets,” she said.“The Dar/Nairobi truce leaves everyone the winner. It keeps the shelves of Kenya’s supermarkets stocked with our fruits, brings foreign currency to our economy, saves Tanzanian jobs and sustains farmers and investors”. The two Governments, she...

Kenya Transporters Association (KTA) Chief Executive Officer Dennis Ombok has vowed to continue with the border protests against the alleged high handedness on the Ugandan side of the border. Addressing a press conference in Mombasa Ombok said truckers who were on the Ugandan side of the border were recently teargased by Ugandan security forces on grounds that they were disobeying social distancing directives and other health protocols. He said many of the drivers who took the covid-19 tests several days ago are not aware of the outcome of those tests to date despite continued promises that the results would be known within 48 hours. Ombok said truck drivers were now being discriminated and stigmatized along the northern transport corridor with claims that they become the real threat to efforts to combat the covid-19 pandemic. The KTA official said it appears authorities with the connivance of the coronavirus pandemic were trying to sabotage cross border trade and drive transporters out of business. “We want the government to send a high level delegation just as they did with Tanzania to resolve our covid-19 problems with Ugandans” he said. The transporters are also asking the harmonization of covid-19 screening in the East African region saying they were being subjected to multiple tests. Ombok also protested the decision by the Transport Ministry that all cargo destined for Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan will be transported via the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) for clearance at the Naivasha inland container depot beginning June 1. He said...

All transit cargo destined for Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan will be transported either on Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) for clearance at the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Naivasha or Metre Gauge Railway to Tororo/Kampala from 1st June 2020. In a statement Friday, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development James Macharia says all transit cargo railed to ICD Naivasha will then be collected by trucks to the partner states via Busia or Malaba. He further, said the fuel products will be transported by pipeline to Kisumu and thereafter by lake Victoria to Port Bell or Jinja. he CS also directed that all the transit cargo/containers transported on SGR will be armed only at ICD at Naivasha to be tracked through the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System; and all exports (both full and empty exports) not railed on metre gauge railway will be delivered to ICD for railage to the Port of Mombasa. “The Heads of State, Their Excellencies President Paul Kagame of the Republic of Rwanda; President Uhuru Kenyatta of the Republic of Kenya; President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of the Republic of Uganda and President Salvar Maryardit Kiir of the Republic of South Sudan during their Consultative Meeting of the East African Community held by Video Conference on 12th May 2020 considered the current status of the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic in the region and directed the Ministers responsible for Health, Transport, and EAC Affairs to adopt a Digital Surveillance and Tracking System for drivers and...