Addis Ababa, 8 December 2020, ECA – Aishatu Debola Aminu is the interim president of the West African Women Cross Border Traders Association (AFROACT). In that capacity she has had firsthand knowledge of challenges traders, especially women, face while doing business across African borders.
Sometime ago she took an exhibit from Nigeria to Senegal for a trade fair. But at the airport in Dakar, customs officials demanded duty in excess of what she had expected to pay. Because of the dispute over the payment, she could not collect her product in time for the exhibition.
This is one of the non-tariff barriers that make intra-African trade costly. NTBs as they are called are a range of restrictive regulations and procedures imposed by government authorities like customs officials that discourage the bulk of African cross border traders. The barriers include difficulties with import bans, licenses or non-recognition of documents presented by traders.
Micro, small and medium-sized companies, informal traders, youth and women play a crucial role in African trade but are disproportionately impacted by NTBs due to their limited resources and access to information. Many of them know that it is easier to trade outside the continent than within it.
One of the measures being taken to tackle these barriers as from 1 January 2021 is this website: www.tradebarriers.africa. It is an online platform that allows African businessmen and women to report, monitor and get support to resolve barriers they encounter in the course of their trading activities. The mechanism will enable victims to report to the relevant authorities in their country who will then seek resolution with the concerned officials in the other country involved in the dispute. A complainant first has to login on the website and then enters their protest. Under the AfCFTA agreement, there are designated National Focal Points and National Monitoring Committees that are obliged to try and resolve such NTBs. African countries could gain US$20 billion each year by removing these barriers.
For the system to work successfully, the onus is on traders to own it, says Christian Knebel of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), one of the development partners promoting the website, together with the African Union Commission and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Through its African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC), the ECA, with financial support from the European Union, is assisting member-states of the AfCFTA to develop national strategies for the implementation of the AfCFTA
“If you don’t report any NTB, then nobody will be able to resolve the barrier,” says Knebel.
The AfCFTA provides the opportunity for Africa to create the world's largest free trade area with the potential to unite more than 1.2 billion people in a $2.5 trillion economic bloc and usher in a new era of development. It has the potential to generate a range of benefits through supporting trade creation, structural transformation, productive employment and poverty reduction.
The AfCFTA agreement entered into force on 30 May 2019 after the treaty was ratified by 22 countries -- the minimum number required under the treaty -- out of the 54 that agreed to be members of the bloc. As of today, 34 member-states have submitted their instrument of ratification of the agreement with the AUC. Eritrea is the only country which has yet to make any commitment to the continental body.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org