The new edition of the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System 2022 (HS2022) entered into force on the 1st of January 2022. This development means that Customs tariffs, associated Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) management systems – such as the Automated Systems for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) – as well as accompanying Harmonised System (HS) tools and instruments must have been successfully migrated from the previous edition (HS2017) to the new version (HS2022).

A few weeks prior to entry into force of HS2022, African countries’ experiences in this regard still indicated widely ranging inconsistencies and discrepancies in the application of the HS in general. Whilst all the Contracting Parties were expected to have fully migrated to the HS2017 by then, apparently some had not yet done so. The majority of those were still either using HS2012 or even HS2007, whilst some had huge delays in rolling out HS2017. Only 30 African countries had successfully migrated to HS2017 and were already applying it. At the launch of the operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) during the 12th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union on the AfCFTA in Niamey, Niger held on the 7th of July 2019, HS2017 was already in its third year. At that time, half of the African Union Member States were still to ratify the AfCFTA.

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The Evolving Role of Customs Administrations – from Goalkeeper to Trade Facilitator

Customs administrations play a pivotal role in the advancement of international trade. The efficiency and effectiveness of customs procedures can significantly influence the economic competitiveness of nations. Customs’ roles and responsibilities have evolved over time and now their main responsibility is to facilitate legitimate trade by allowing it to pass through borders as quickly and smoothly as possible while implementing border management and enforcing controls.

The transition from the traditional objective of revenue collection and enforcement of mainly protective controls to the modern trade facilitation agenda and trade policy reform requires a paradigm shift. Customs administrations around the world constantly encounter challenges to enhance their processes in order to make them more robust and transparent, thereby striking a balance between facilitating trade and the enforcement of effective border controls.

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Low intra-Africa and regional trade have historically been attributed to tariffs. However, recent evidence shows that non-tariff issues are the main reason for low intra-Africa and regional trade. Intra-Africa trade could significantly increase if governments prioritised addressing trade facilitation challenges and implement trade facilitation measures espoused in the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) or elsewhere (e.g. national, regional and multilateral instruments). Addressing trade facilitation challenges requires several actions by governments and customs and border agencies. Actions ranging from effective implementation of existing legal frameworks, amendment of existing legislation and regulation to improving the efficiency of procedural or operational issues at the border posts and ports.

Trade facilitation challenges have been examined elsewhere and there is general agreement that they are the major obstacles to intra-Africa and regional trade. This Trade Brief provides recommendations to governments for implementing measures that will facilitate transparency, increase compliance and simplification of cross-border trade procedures and reduce time and costs of doing business across borders. Recently, African governments have adopted an array of temporary measures to facilitate trade in essential food and health supplies during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This Trade Brief commends such measures and provides practical recommendations that can support governments’ efforts to expedite trade during the pandemic and beyond. In certain instances, the present Trade Brief recommends the extension of the temporary measures to facilitate the trade of essential food and medical products adopted during the pandemic. We recommend their integration into existing or new legal frameworks for trade facilitation.

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From the end of 2019, as the Covid-19 virus began to spread, countries have implemented various mitigating measures. These vary across countries and include short-term shutting-down of most domestic economic activities, border closures, and testing certification procedures for cross-border transporters.

These restrictions have a significant and often negative impact on the transportation of goods and logistics. South Africa is a transit hub for the transportation of goods between African countries and also between African countries and those further afield. Covid-19 restrictions affect the transportation of goods to South Africa and transit traffic through South Africa. Border closures and delays, changes in demand and supply, and logistics problems such as container shortages and changes in shipping routes require that producers, importers, transporters, and logistic service providers rethink some trade routes.

This Trade Brief examines the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on intra-Africa transit traffic. In particular, the focus is on goods in transit through South Africa. How have Covid-19 restrictions affected the flow of transit traffic through South Africa?

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The Protocols to the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) establish various technical committees to assist with the implementation of the Agreement. When fully and effectively implemented, the Agreement is expected to enhance the prospects of boosting growth, reduce poverty and broaden economic inclusion among the African countries as their tendency to trade with one another increases. Of the fifty-four (54) Member States which have signed the Agreement, thirty-seven (37) had deposited their instruments of ratification as of June 2021, becoming State Parties to the AfCFTA.

This trade brief presents information on Trade Facilitation under the AfCFTA’s Protocol on Trade in Goods. It also focuses on the institutional arrangements (sub-committees) for its implementation. It concludes by briefly examining the contextual and institutional relationship between Trade Facilitation at the continental level under the AfCFTA and the multilateral level under the World Trade Organization (WTO).

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In Africa, cross-border road transport carries over 80% of intra-regional and inter-regional trade. It provides a critical link between landlocked countries and international markets, and plays an important role for regional connectivity. Improving regional connectivity is becoming increasingly important to promoting intra-regional trade and intra-Africa trade, and this requires an efficient transport system which enables faster travel, facilitates movement and achieves the goal of smooth movement of goods.

In most cases, road transport is the only mode of transport available connecting inland economic hubs in different countries, thus enabling landlocked countries to participate in the global economic system. Whilst some regional corridors are multimodal (such as the Central corridor), providing both road and rail, others provide both modes only for a section of the corridor (like the Trans-Kalahari corridor). Corridor institutional arrangements have a huge bearing on the performance of corridors, the efficiency of operations and speed at which corridor bottlenecks are addressed. It is therefore important to keep these in check to continuously improve the arrangements with a view to enhance their effectiveness and impact on trade facilitation. This is important towards enhancing the realisation of the objectives of key regional and continental initiatives such as the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

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This paper investigates movements in services trade restrictions and their impacts on services trade over an eight-year period (2008-2016). It utilises the latest, most globally inclusive inter-temporal data set available, to draw conclusions about the impacts of shifts in services trade restrictions on the value of trade in services. The dataset covers developed and developing countries, and includes five leading African economies. Both informal and formal quantitative methods are used to draw out insights, the most striking of which is the contrast in the results between developed and developing countries.

For all countries, the aggregate level of services trade restrictions has tended downward (liberalisation), but this shift was only associated with boosts to services trade (both imports and exports) among developing countries (including Africa). Developed countries, which are presumably closer to the limits of services sector development, did not experience noticeable boosts to services trade values as a result of on-going liberalisation.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

Cross-border road transport faces numerous barriers which impede seamless and efficient movements and trade flows. Many of the barriers can be directly linked to the fragmentation that exists in the regulatory regimes, unharmonised legislations, regulatory requirements and technical standards implemented in different countries. The instruments implemented by the countries vary in scope and finer text, which further compounds the complexities emanating from multiple agreements which they use to regulate cross-border road transport.

There are a few significant initiatives and programmes that were commissioned which have potential to address some of the road transport regulatory issues affecting cross-border road transport in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region, and examples include the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and the Tripartite Transport and Transit Facilitation Programme (TTTFP). The need to address the regulatory fragmentation is also heightened in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which effectively became operational in the beginning of 2021.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

On the last day of December 2020, the South African Department of Home Affairs published two draft policies for public comment. The one is a Draft One-stop Border Post Policy, the other a Draft Official Identity Management Policy. The publication of the draft policies followed not long after the signing into law of the Border Management Authority Act by the South African President in July 2020.

The connection between the One-stop Border Post (OSBP) Policy and the Border Management Authority (BMA) Act is clear. From a border management perspective, the Identity Management Policy (IMP) will be relevant if the state-of-the-art personal identification system envisaged by the policy is given effect to. As much is foreseen by the Draft IMP when it refers to ‘interoperability across borders’, ‘integration across borders’ and to 2024, when the identification system ‘interfaces with systems of neighbouring countries – piloted through the one-stop border post initiative’. The Draft OSBP Policy, for its part, should be more direct in its recognition of the IMP than the casual ‘South Africa is in the process of modernising its identity management systems’. The IMP should be mentioned by name, if only to show a level of integration in the thinking of the Department of Home Affairs – and the Government.

This Working Paper is aimed at the Draft OSBP Policy. The Policy is to be welcomed because talk and decisions about border management in South Africa have a running history with slow results amidst ever-stuttering border control, shown up in extreme fashion by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

Borders and border control matter. A starker reminder of this simple truth could hardly be found than the Covid-19 pandemic. It caused worldwide ‘lockdowns’ and border closures that disrupted the movement of persons, goods and services and caused more economic harm than the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. Regular reports of the International Air Traffic Association (IATA) paint a grim picture of the losses suffered by airlines when closed borders hit international travel and air cargo for the better part of 2020. Borders also matter in facilitating trade. This much is trite. Smooth border procedures save money, reduce traders’ costs and ensure proper revenue collection for the authorities. Yet, while much has been done and achieved by various international organisations in establishing and refining best international practices for border management, challenges remain.

Against this backdrop South Africa’s recent creation of a single border management authority is of more than passing interest. South Africa is a dominant economy on the African continent. The question this paper will attempt to answer, is whether, on a proper reading of the Border Management Authority Act 2 of 2020, the concerns are valid. The intention is not an in-depth section-by-section analysis, but rather whether the text conceptually reflects a workable model.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.