The Regional Integration and Trade Division (RITD) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) published a report titled «Facilitating cross-border trade through a coordinated African response to COVID-19″The document provides a critical assessment of existing border restrictions and regulations, with a view to providing guidance on how to strike an appropriate balance between curbing the long-term spread of the virus and facilitating essential and emergency trade.
Stephen Karingi, Director of RITD noted that COVID-19 may become the “new normal” for some time, forcing African governments to adapt and innovate to facilitate new “safe” ways of conducting cross-border trade. Maintaining trade flows as much as possible during the pandemic will be crucial to providing access to essential food and medical supplies and to limiting negative impacts on employment and poverty.
Following the outbreak of COVID-19, Almost all African countries have imposed varying degrees of restrictions on the cross-border movement of goods and people, including suspension of international flights, quarantine requirements for entrants, and closure of land and sea borders. Under a set of strict regulations, these closures aim to reduce the movement of people while allowing exemptions for the movement of emergency and essential cargo supplies. Such regulations typically cover mandatory testing, disinfection of trucks, limiting the number of crew members, and designating transit rest areas. These restrictions and regulations have helped in the battle of COVID-19 on the continent, but have also had negative impacts on cross-border trade and economic activity. This risks hampering the continent’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals set out in Agenda 2030 and the aspirations of Agenda 2063.
In light of these challenges, it is crucial that African countries cooperate to harmonize COVID-19 border regulations in order to reduce delays, without undermining trade security. To that end, The report proposes a rapid implementation of the Regional Economic Community (REC) COVID-19 guidelines existing, including through the establishment of regional coordination committees with the primary task of addressing operational problems at national borders.
Furthermore, these regional efforts must also be coordinated at the continental level through the African Union (AU). You need a Common COVID-19 Protocol on Trade and Transport given the overlap in membership of RECs and the shared trade facilitation objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). In developing such a protocol, the experiences and best practices of RECs should be taken into account. Also A common African Union COVID-19 test certificate will be required for truck drivers and crew members to facilitate the movement of essential personnel across borders with as little interference as possible.
In some cases, new COVID-19 border regulations and concerns about cross-border transmission of the virus have led to clashes between truckers and border authorities, and even disputes that have required diplomatic intervention. Amid the pandemic, African economies must not allow COVID-19 to undermine regional integration and must maintain the momentum and ambition of the AfCFTA process. The historic Agreement offers a tool to accelerate economic recovery while protecting Africa against future adverse global shocks. As AfCFTA States Parties finalise tariff offers and prepare to begin trading, African countries can already begin prioritising the implementation of elements of the Agreement that are complete and ‘ready to go’, including the non-tariff barriers mechanism and the annexes on trade, facilitation and customs cooperation.
The role of digital solutions in combating the spread of COVID-19 along trade corridors should not be overlooked. Contract tracing through electronic cargo tracking systems, electronic signatures and documents, and the use of mobile banking and payment systems can help support secure and efficient trade. In this regard, the upcoming AfCFTA negotiations on e-commerce should be used to accelerate the digitalisation of procedures and systems, so that African exporters are less at risk of losing market access in future crises.
The main conclusion of the report is that by magnifying Africa's cross-border inefficiencies, The pandemic presents an opportunity to reinvigorate efforts aimed at overcoming long-standing trade facilitation challenges. COVID-19 has heightened the urgency to improve and find innovative solutions to facilitate safe and efficient cross-border trade.It will be important for Africa to maintain and upgrade these solutions post-COVID-19, to reduce trade costs, boost competitiveness and support more resilient cross-border trade in the face of future shocks.
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