Assessing Trade Facilitation in Africa: A Regional Perspective Stakeholders Review of Feasibility S

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 Assessing Trade Facilitation in Africa A
Regional Perspective Stakeholders Review of
Feasibility Study of Dry Ports in
EthiopiaRobert Tama Lisinge24 November
2009Addis Ababa
UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA

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Outline

• What is Trade Facilitation (TF)?
• Context of TF in Africa
• Key TF Issues in Africa
• Dimensions of TF in Africa
• TF at the WTO
• Aid for Trade and TF
• Future Outlook
• Conclusions

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What is Trade Facilitation

• Efforts to address the logistics of moving goods
  through ports or more effeciently moving
  documentation associated with cross-border trade.
• Comprehensive integrated approach to
  simplifying and reducing the cost of
  international trade transaction
• Ensuring that relevant activities take place in
  an efficient, transparent and predictable manner
  based on internationally accepted standards and
  best practices

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The Big Picture Context of TF in Africa

• Africas TF Objectives
• Accelerate the pace of regional integration by
  increasing intra-African trade
• Enhance Africas participation in the
  globalisation process by dismantling barriers to
  trade
• Promote trade as an engine of growth

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Weak Intra-African Trade
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Marginalisation in the Globalisation Process

• Volume of goods across borders has increased
  exponentially in recent years 50 times higher in
  1999 than in 1960
• Africa has failed to benefit from steady
  increase in international trade
• In 1950, Africa delivered 10 of world exports,
  by 2000 this share had declined to lt3
• ? Situation worse in sub-Saharan Africa whose
  share of world exports of goods and services is lt
  1.5

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Key Issues of TF in Africa

• High transport costs
• Complicated customs procedures
• Inadequate usage of information and communication
  technology
• Payments, insurance and other financial
  requirements
• International trade standards

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High Transport Costs Hinder International Trade
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Africas Response TF Initiatives on the Continent

• Efforts at sub regional level
• RECs at forefront of TF in Africa
• Several RECS have TF programmes
• Efforts focused on removal of non-physical
  barriers along transit corridors
• Bilateral cooperation
• Several bilateral agreements exist
• Cameroon has signed conventions with Chad and
  CAR special facilities provided to landlocked
  countries at seaports
• Efforts at country level - One stop shops,
  Facilitation Committees
• Efforts by international organizations
• Corridor management committees
• Observatories of abnormal practices
• Joint border posts

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Regional TF Activities

• Corridors recognized/benefiting from SSATP
• Djibouti-Addis Ababa Corridor
• Northern Corridor
• Dar es Salaam Corridor
• North South Corridor
• Point Noire-Brazzaville/Matadi-Kinshasa-Bangui
  Corridor
• Douala-Bangui-Njamena Corridor
• ECOWAS-UEMOA Corridors (Lagos-Abidjan
  Tema-Ouaga-Niamey Bamako Lome-Ouaga-Niamey
  Bamako)

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Regional TF Activities Establishment of Corridor
Committees (cont)

• Technical Committee for Djibouti- Addis Ababa
  Corridor (being) established in Ethiopia/
  Djibouti(?)
• Charter for Douala-Njamena-Bangui Corridor
  reviewed National Facilitation Committee created
  in Chad
• Standard text for National Facilitation and
  Corridor Committees established in ECOWAS and 8
  National Committees set up

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Regional TF Activities Creation of
Observatories

• Committee need relevant information to function
  effectively
• Observatories could play an important role in
  that regard
• Observatory exist in Abidjan-Lagos Corridor
• Baseline survey for Northern Corridor observatory
  completed

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Regional TF Activities Establishment of Joint
Border Posts

• Prominent among TF projects
• Several pilot projects introduced, including
• Malaba (Kenya/Uganda border)
• Seme/ Krake Plage (Benin/Nigeria)
• Cinkase (Burkina Faso/Togo)
• Chirundu (Zambia/Zimbabwe)
• Having an appropriate legal framework is a
  constraint to establishment of joint border post
• Study on legal status of joint border posts
  undertaken by ECOWAS

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Trade Facilitation measures in COMESA, ECOWAS
and CEMAC
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WTO Negotiations on TF

• TF negotiations commenced at WTO in 2004.
• Modalities for negotiations, include
• Clarification and improvement of relevant aspects
  of Articles V, VIII and X of GATT 1994
• Negotiations to take into account the principle
  of special and differential treatment
• Member countries to identify their TF needs and
  priorities
• Developed countries to provide technical support
  for capacity building of African negotiators, and
  international organizations to Coordinate efforts

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TF and Aid for Trade (AFT)

• AFT launched to build supply-side and
  infrastructure capacity required to enhance
  participation in world trading system
• African AFT Review Meeting (1-2 Oct 2007, Dar es
  Salaam)
• Conclusions of meeting African AFT priorities
• Infrastructure
• Trade Facilitation
• Capacity building for RECs (regional dimension)
• Involvement and development of the private sector

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Potentially Problematic Solutions

• Some TF measures could be counter productive if
  poorly administered
• Weighbridges associated with delays accuracy and
  competence of operators questioned
• Police escorts also associated with delays and
  results in additional costs
• Risk management (targeted inspections) Products
  smuggled in vehicles transporting goods exempted
  from customs duty

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Future Outlook

• Need to shift from activity-based to results
  based management of TF projects
• Use of targets and indicators of achievement
  critical in that regard
• Lack of data hampers effort to evaluate impact of
  projects observatories could provide necessary
  data
• Considerable goodwill of international community
  to provided technical assistance and capacity
  building related to TF

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Future Outlook Harnessing Goodwill of Donor
Community

• Technical assistance and capacity building
  related to TF
• WTO negotiations and Aid for Trade Initiative are
  most recent frameworks
• African countries require self-assessment as
  starting point for TA CB
• WTO and WCO have developed tools for
  self-assessment
• Measures recommended in the Almaty Programme of
  Action could serve as a checklist

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Future Outlook TF Committees

• National TF Committees are appropriate to
  undertake needs assessments
• Essential for TF Committee to have broad based
  membership (trade and transport officials
  customs civil society private sector)
• TF committees could eventually play monitoring
  and evaluation role
• Threat to monitoring and evaluation is
  uncertainty in availability of funds.
• Internal funding mechanism critical

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Conclusions

• Internal and external factors have contributed to
  the intensification of TF activities in Africa
• Monitoring and evaluating these activities will
  help avoid wasteful use of resources
• Broad scope of TF calls for establishment of
  national and regional forums involving all
  stakeholders
• Funding of such forums is a major challenge but
  initiatives such as AFT could be explored in that
  regard

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Thank You!