The East African Business Council (EABC) recently signed a US$ 3.2 million financing agreement with TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) for simplification and harmonization of trade procedures in the region. The program will be implemented over three years.
The coming together of two organizations is designed to support the organization’s effort to promote advocacy for improving coordination, reporting, and resolution of non- tariff barriers along the corridors; harmonization and adoption of East African standards or sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and to improve adoption and harmonization of customs and domestic tax-related policies. All these measures would lead to trade facilitation in the region. The project will also facilitate evidence-based research on public-private dialogues to reducing barriers to trade in the EAC region. Another highlight of the program is to promote public-private dialogue, which can play a crucial role in addressing constraints, providing short-term stimulus with long-term impact and contributing to economic growth and poverty reduction. The project also will address transport and logistics, trade facilitation, customs and tax, standards, and NTBs in a bid to increase trade and investments in the region.
The program goes beyond the scope of the EAC and incorporates the COMESA, COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Another aspect of the project is to address the cost of doing business. Barriers such as multiple product standard inspections, bureaucratic trade procedures delay business transactions and increase the cost of doing business enhance the transaction cost and adds up to the cost of a product. For instance, the time taken to export is at an average of 76 hours, which is too high compared to 12.5 hours in OECD high-income economies, according to the World Bank Ease of Doing Business report (2018).
