Intra-trade and cargo movement from one country to the other was highly disrupted in the early days of COVID 19 as states struggled to contain the spread of a pandemic, they knew very little about.
Speaking to Uganda’s Daily Monitor, Frank Matsaert, the TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) chief executive officer, said that the pandemic has offered vital lessons with great potential to enhance trade relations among the countries.
Key among these lessons include the need to build greater collaboration and coordination, robust and resilient economies, early warning and detection mechanisms of threats and tapping into technology to build resilient trading systems.
Matsaert also said that adoption of more trade supportive technology in key trade areas such as ports, corridors, and borders needs to be consistent because they are more resilient in times of crisis and minimise transmission risks.
“There is also a need to increase internal and external border agency collaboration as well as streamlining and simplifying regulatory and border procedures to facilitate trade,” he said.
Focus on trade reform policies such as tariffs reduction, roll-out of trade information portals, building and promoting regional value chains to avert global contagion and strengthen the local and regional private sector organisations to advocate for an improved business environment must also be enhanced, according to Matsaert.
What is also interesting is that Covid-19 has presented new opportunities in the growth of e-commerce in the region, which calls for the need for governments to invest in ICT infrastructure and new e-commerce strategies to harness technological innovations, according to Matsaert.
“We also anticipate Africa and the region to trade more within itself, supported by commencement of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA, which is expected to strengthen trade value chains,” he said.
TMEA played significant roles in trade facilitation during the pandemic period. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, TMEA has had to shift focus on ensuring safe trade for all.
In May 2020, TMEA created a $23m Safe Trade Emergency Facility to support governments across the region to undertake critical measures along the transport and trade routes to ensure continued trade.
This was an emergency programme that sought to support eastern and southern African governments to implement containment measures against Covid-19 and trade resilience.
“The programme supports trade continuity in a safer manner through short and medium term interventions that are critical for resumption of economic activity, food security and social stability, jobs and economic recovery,” Matsaert said.
The Safe Trade Emergency Facility has been developed to cushion trade and people within East Africa with key objectives of making ports, borders and critical supply chains safe for trade as well as ensuring food security and access to critically required medicines and supporting measures to prevent job and income losses.
The programme is being implemented under seven clusters, supporting emergency personal protective equipment and testing, trade technology interventions, which include the regional cargo and driver tracking system, trade policy interventions, supply chain support, standards and sanitary and phyto-sanitary projects, private sector advocacy interventions and gender inclusion, women in trade and safe zones.
The programme has recorded some successes such as provision of personal protective equipment to frontline stuff and traders at ports, borders and Inland container depots in Uganda, Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Somaliland, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
COVID 19 has negatively impacted on regional economies. First to suffer were horticulture, floriculture and tourism sectors that declined by close to 70 per cent on account of restrictions in Europe and North American markets.
Manufacturing and cross-border trade also shrunk. As a result of contraction of the economies and other tax relief measures in response to Covid-19, government revenues to finance social programmes have been significantly impacted.
Besides this, both foreign direct investments and diaspora disbursements into the region have declined, affecting foreign inflows as well as putting pressure on exchange rate and commodity prices.
According to Matsaert, economies are expected to rebound back to normal on the accounts of anticipated arrival and manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines.
