KEPSA as a co-chair of the National Trade Facilitation Committee (NTFC) participated in East Africa Community (EAC) sub-committee on Trade Facilitation that was held in Arusha, Tanzania from 2^nd to 5^th October 2023. The focus of the meeting was to review the progress of partner states in the implementation of the directives from Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment (SCTIFI) on trade facilitation and thereafter partner states to present their priority areas of support to donors through a round table.

Commendable progress was reported in the meeting by the different partner states. However, the following cross-cutting issues were agreed to be tackled;

• Simplification of procedures to be prioritized among the partner states because it requires a lot of human and financial resources to coordinate implementation of reforms especially on review of laws/regulations and automation of the processes;
• NTFCs to utilise the Reform Tracker to enhance efficiency in the implementation of the WTO – Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) reforms and increase the accountability and commitment of the NTFCs members;
• the Committee on Trade to recommend to the Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance, and Investment to direct the Secretariat; and
• SCTIFI to support the NTFC committees to establish a centralized enquiry points management system.

On 6^th October 2023, the EAC held a donor round table officiated by the EAC Secretary-General to take stock of the Trade Facilitation activities that have been undertaken in EAC region. The Partner States made presentations of the progress so far made towards implementation of the Trade facilitation initiatives, regional priorities and discussed modalities of funding and explored ways to enhance implementation of the WTO agreement on Trade Facilitation in a coordinated way.

During the donor round table, Partner States presented the current state of play and identified areas that require support which include and not limited to;

• Implementation of the EAC Trade policy;
• Enhancement of the Single Customs Territory towards the realization of a functional Customs Union:
• Freedom of Transit and Bond Guarantees system.
• Trade Technologies: Smart Corridor: Smart Gates; Regional Cargo Tracking, interconnectivity of Customs Systems, Electronic Processes and Payments, OSBP PMT (mobile devices)
• Implementation of the OSB Sustainable Strategy.
• Simplification, automation of processes and Enquiry Points.
• Harmonization of Standards and Testing Labs and SPS procedures.

Please click here for the detailed report.