Blog

Kenya and South Africa Bilateral Trade 2019

24 Nov 2020 ~ Talkmore Chidede

Kenya and South Africa have no trade agreement currently. Trade between the two countries is conducted under the most-favoured-nation – World Trade Organization – rules. Kenya is a par...read more

Collating and disseminating FDI data and related information in Africa – Challenges and opportunities

24 Nov 2020 ~ Talkmore Chidede

Collating and disseminating foreign direct investment (FDI) statistics and related information is important for many reasons. It helps government officials and policy makers formulate appr...read more

Eswatini merchandise trade: Jan-May 2019 and Jan-May 2020 comparison

24 Nov 2020 ~ Talkmore Chidede

Eswatini is one of the few African countries that has reported their 2020 monthly trade data thus far. Eswatini is a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Southern African Cust...read more

Madagascar trade: Jan-Jul 2019 and Jan-July 2020 comparison

24 Nov 2020 ~ Annabel Nanjira (intern)

Madagascar is one of the few African countries that has reported their monthly 2020 data thus far. Madagascar is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and two regional economic co...read more

Africa’s COVID-19 medical supplies trade: January-June 2020

24 Nov 2020 ~ Juliette Armelle Kouamo (intern)

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic brought an unprecedented demand for medical products (COVID-19 medical supplies) required to curb the spread of the virus. COVID-19 medical supplies inc...read more

Intra-SADC FTA trade and SADC FTA trade with the rest of Africa 2019

24 Nov 2020 ~ Martin Gitau (intern)

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) consists of 16 members – 13 of which are in a free trade area (FTA). The SADC FTA members are Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, M...read more

The Kenya-UK post-Brexit Trade Agreement

23 Nov 2020 ~ Gerhard Erasmus

Since the beginning of this year the United Kingdom (UK) ceased to be a member of the European Union (EU). The Withdrawal Agreement entered into force on 31 January 2020. However, the UK c...read more

SACU trade 2019

23 Nov 2020 ~ Talkmore Chidede

The Southern African Customs Union (SACU), comprising Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa, is a customs union (CU) with duty-free[1] intra-SACU trade and a common externa...read more

What could the Biden victory mean for Africa?

11 Nov 2020 ~ Gerhard Erasmus

The Biden administration will have many urgent matters in its in-tray. Relations with specific foreign governments might not be at the top of that stack, but the departure of President Tru...read more

First Meeting of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Technical Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights

11 Nov 2020 ~ Abrie du Plessis

The Seventh Meeting of African Union (AU) Ministers of Trade, which took place on 12-13 December 2018 in Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt, directed that Technical Working Groups (TWGs) be est...read more

Customs enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the European Union – a short briefing on the recent EU action on the importation of blueberries from South Africa

11 Nov 2020 ~ Abrie du Plessis

In the European Union (EU), customs enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRS) takes place in terms of Regulation (EU) No. 608/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, a...read more

South Africa’s PPE shortage – what can we learn?

14 Oct 2020 ~ David Christianson

Within the first week of South Africa’s lock down in response to the Covid-19 crisis, at the end of March, health care professionals were warning that locally available supplies of perso...read more

National and regional perspectives and responses on the impact of COVID-19 on cross-border trade and Customs border management – what are we learning?

12 Oct 2020 ~ Rwatida Mafurutu

What began as a worldwide health crisis, turned out to be a global economic shock of unimaginable effects on cross-border trade for travellers, traders, transporters, and policy-makers in ...read more