Dennis Ndonga

Customs and border procedures play a pivotal role in influencing the development trajectory of many emerging economies. In locating and operating manufacturing and international trade operations, many corporations often require assurances that their inputs and finished products can be moved seamlessly cross-border, devoid of unnecessary disruptions and obstacles that adversely affect their operations and increase costs. Unfortunately, the cross-border flow of goods in most developing regions is replete with border inefficiency issues that impact not only their direct imports and exports, but also that of transit goods to their landlocked neighbours. This chapter assesses the nature of the customs-related issues impacting trade and transit operations in developing countries, as well as their broader economic impact, and ultimately presents strategic approaches to mitigating these issues.

As African countries work towards establishing a continental market created under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), emphasis needs to be placed on improving connectivity and regional accessibility. One-Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) are central to enhancing interconnectivity among African countries to facilitate traffic flows along Africa's transport corridors. Under the OSBP concept, all traffic stops once to undertake both exit and entry formalities when crossing into another jurisdiction. Such a framework would help alleviate border congestion and delays that adversely impact transport costs, trade flows, and trade competitiveness. However, OSBPs present their own challenges. Using the Chirundu OSBP between Zambia and Zimbabwe (which was the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa) as a case study, this article examines the challenges, highlights the issues, and suggests ways to address the problems. It reviews the border management and infrastructure challenges affecting operations and success of the Chirundu OSBP and points to implementation lessons that can be drawn to inform other African countries that intend to implement, or are in the process of developing, OSBPs.

African countries are still negotiating the RoO for AfCFTA. Rules of Origin (RoO), a mechanism for determining the economic nationality of a product, are an essential part of international trade due to their use in the enforcement of preferential treatment of goods. AfCFTA member states seek to build upon RoO under their existing RECs. However, the design and implementation of RoO under the various RECs are seen as one of the obstacles to intra-Africa trade. This article examines the RoO of Africa’s key RECs, namely the EAC, COMESA, ECOWAS, SADC and the TFTA, with a view to drawing out lessons, the drawbacks that need to be addressed or avoided, and shaping the RoO of the AfCFTA to enhance the achievement of its objective of promoting intra-African trade.

The East and Southern Africa (ESA) region continues to lag in gender equality, with women remaining largely underrepresented in leadership and high-status positions compared to their sisters in other world regions. This is even though the three Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in ESA have all made efforts at incorporating gender perspectives in their customs and trade policies. This article explores the gender gap in customs and trade across ESA and concludes that the region’s member countries stand to benefit from improved organisational performance and increased global competitiveness by integrating gender perspectives in their customs and trade operations.

Over the years, Africa's share of global investment flows has been much lower compared to other world regions. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) seeks to remedy this through the Investment Protocol, which will include provisions aimed at addressing some of the non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to Africa's investment. As negotiations on the Protocol's provisions continue to take shape, a key area that has received little attention is preferential Rules of Origin (RoO). Most literature on RoO has focused on their impact on trade flows and failed to take note of their role in...

This research book presents the papers, report and outcomes of the 3 WCO ESA Regional Research Conference which was held on the 23 and 24 November 2021. It was co-organized by the ROCB and WCO Regional Training Centre (RTC) Mauritius with the support of WCO Regional Training Centre (RTC) Kenya and the WCO ESA Project II funded by the Government of Finland. The conference was attended by more than 150 participants from across the world and held virtually as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants included researchers and officials from various member customs administrations in the East and Southern Africa Region, WCO ESA Regional Training Centres (RTCs), the WCO, the African Union, the private sector, academia, and other cooperating partners. The conference was also graced by the prescence of a high level delegation including: The Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail & Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mauritius, the Honourable Alan Ganoo; and the World Customs Organization Secretary General, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya.

The theme of the conference was “The effects of emerging issues on the role of Customs and Trade’’ in East and Southern Africa, covering: Potential effects of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on trade and Customs; Security and development: Challenges and opportunities presented by technologies and emergence of new trade practices and their potential effects on security; Gender Equity, Equality and Diversity: Highlighting opportunities presented in the integration of gender practices and promotion of diversity in Customs and Trade; Enhancing trade facilitation and impact of cross border ecommerce on Customs and International trade; and an overview of digitization and its effect on AfCFTA, Gender and cross- border Trade as well as Trade Facilitation in General. Panel discussions focused on Return to Normalcy & Impact of Virtual Engagements following the COVID-19 pandemic and on the Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Revenue Collection. Two keynote addresses were delivered on: “The effect of emerging and ongoing issues on the role of Customs and Trade” and “Enhancing the Movement of Medicines and Medical Equipment in East and Southern African Region Amidst Covid-19 Pandemic.”

The World Customs Organization, East and Southern Africa Region launched the ESA Regional Research Programme in 2013, aiming to build institutional capacity and the body of knowledge in Customs through research. The programme also aims to enhance the region’s capacity to showcase its own research globally.

The 1st WCO ESA Regional Research Conference was hosted by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority in 2014 in Harare, Zimbabwe, themed “Customs and Trade Facilitation: Building Institutional Capacity and the body of knowledge in Customs through research”. The 2nd conference took place in 2017, hosted by the Regional Training Center (RTC), Kenya. The theme of the conference was “Impacts and Implication of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the WCO Mercator Programme to the ESA region”.

The agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has been touted as an important pillar and driver for economic growth, industrialisation and sustainable development in Africa. Among its expected key benefits is the promise to increase the level of intra-African trade by eliminating import duties and other tariffs among member countries, in addition to general trade expansion. However, unlocking the AfCFTA’s full potential will largely depend on how the continent is able to restructure its exports, which are poorly diversified and remain highly dependent on primary commodities. Moreover, intra-African trade remains dominated by a few big regional players. To this end, there have been growing fears that the AfCFTA’s anticipated gains, and associated losses, are likely to accrue unevenly. Countries with large productive capacities in manufacturing or stronger supply capacities in non-manufactured products may reap more rewards than weaker landlocked and smaller economies, particularly the least developed countries (LDCs). These concerns have led to a number of countries, including Malawi, pushing for special and differential treatment in the implementation of the AfCFTA’s provisions on the elimination of import duties and other tariffs. Many LDCs, including Malawi, rely heavily on international trade taxes as a source of government revenue. There is a legitimate concern that such economies are likely to be left grappling with the negative effects of tariff cuts in the form of substantial fiscal revenue loss. This article explores the potential impact of the AfCFTA on LDCs, with a focus on Malawi. It reviews Malawi’s intra-African trade position in terms of its export potential and examines the likely impact that the AfCFTA agreement would have on the country’s fiscal revenues.

In 2015, Kenya adopted a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) policy as one of its major economic growth and development pillars aimed at attracting investments to the country's manufacturing sector. However, the current SEZ scheme is not the first of such schemes adopted by Kenya – it is the latest in a string of schemes adopted in the last five decades. As the earlier schemes were mostly unsuccessful, the question is why would this new SEZ scheme succeed? This article examines Kenya's experience with SEZ. It assesses the scheme's legal and institutional framework, offers a critique of the scheme and makes some recommendations.

Rapid progressions in cross-border e-commerce has revolutionized international trade and made it possible for businesses to transact in a borderless Internet environment. However, most international tax treaties still apply source-based taxation principles, including the permanent establishment concept, in taxing income derived from international commerce. This article examines whether source-based taxation remains theoretically valid in the territorial taxation of cross-border e-commerce income. It analyses the application of the permanent establishment concept to e-commerce corporate income and reviews some of the existing challenges and the current responses to these challenges at the academic and international level.