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| Judy Kasobo, a cross border trader taking her goods to the border town of Victoria falls. |
JUDY
Kasabo, a cross-border trade who lives in Livngstone’s Maramba Township, starts
her day as early as 04:00 hours.
She
has to trek to Maramba market to buy tomatoes at wholesale price after which
she goes to Victoria Falls Town in Zimbabwe to sell the commodity.
Tomatoes
are in high demand in the southern African country which suffered economically
as a result of sanctions imposed on it by western countries for its
controversial land redistribution policy in which most white commercial farmers
were driven off their farms.
“I
cross the Victoria Falls border post twice every day to sell tomatoes and also
buy cleaning products from Zimbabwe, which I later sell in Livingstone,” Ms
Kabaso said.
She
has been doing this since 2013.
“Since
I started cross-border trading, I have not had serious challenges in crossing
the border with my goods, or with customs. I follow the law and I know each
time what goods I must pay duty on and which ones I must not.”
The
smooth business that Ms Kabaso conducts between Zambia and Zimbabwe is one of
the benefits of the implementation of the Common Market for Eastern and
Southern Africa (COMESA) Simplified Trade Regime (STR), which was introduced in
2010.
SRT
consultant John Chirwa says the inspiration was the recognition that
small-scale traders are responsible for the bulk of intra-COMESA food trade
which stands at 30 to 40 percent.
Having
realised this huge contribution, COMESA felt the need to develop a mechanism
that would help small-scale traders participate more effectively in the Free
Trade Area (FTA), which involves the abolishment of duty on nearly all goods
produced locally and sold in members of the regional grouping.
According
to the guidelines of the FTA, goods ‘originating’ from COMESA member states
pass through the borders of those states for resale without paying any duty.
The
said goods must, however, appear on what is referred to as ‘a common list’ on
both sides of the border, and for Zambia and Zimbabwe, goods such as potatoes,
dried beans, soya products, yeast, cement and ploughs, appear on the list.
To
help small-scale traders to understand the STR, trade information desks have been
set up at border posts throughout the countries where the STR applies, and
Zambia-Chirundu, Mwami and Victoria Falls borders are already on the STR.
And
Mr Chirwa says the STR initiative has three main objectives:
To
formalise the sector to bring the traders out of the informal sector, because
most of the cross border traders used bush roots to cross border posts
To
help cross-border traders with simplified clearing procedures at the border;
and to provide documentation for the small-scale cross-border traders at the
border instead of travelling to Lusaka.
The
programme, which was piloted by Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi, now covers seven
countries.
Trade
information desks have been set up at border posts manned by a member of the
cross-border traders associations to help traders with the necessary
information to ease their business engagement.
Sidney
Mudenda is an information desk manager at Chirundu.
He
says the information desk provides services to cross-border traders when
filling in forms and education on COMESA trade protocols among other necessary
requisites.
“We
also deal with sexual harassment complaints against female traders. Other
issues include disputes that may arise, customs and bribery issues,” he says.
Dealing
with sexual harassment is cardinal.
Most
baseline surveys done indicate that majority of informal cross-border traders
are women.
According
to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNDFW), women constitute
about 70 percent of the informal cross-border traders in southern Africa.
And
Mr Mudenda says most women traders fall in the category of the simplified
regime which allows that “provided the goods are worth US$1,000 or less and
will be sold in the neighbouring country; the trader can use the simplified
customs document”.
Cross-border
traders export goods such as cotton wool, caterpillars, exercise books, hair
extensions, plastic ware as well as fresh products such bananas, tomatoes and
oranges which are also part of the common list.
The
Department of Immigration believes the STR programme is a perfect fit for
smallholder traders.
“The
STR is one of the most successful reforms for small-scale traders,” says the
department’s public relations officer Namati Nshinka.
“It
feels like we are progressing, moving to a new level. People are using this
opportunity to trade freely more and more.”
According
to Mr Chirwa, the STR programme has positive results, helping traders to come
out of poverty and increasing the volume of trade.
“Some
traders have graduated from being smallholder traders to medium while others
even to large-scale traders,” he says.
“The
STR is one sector that has promoted food security because it enhances the
movement of food from surplus areas to food deficit areas.”
Despite
the progress made, some challenges still remain, including transport costs and
bribe seeking by some immigration officers.
There
is also lack of proper infrastructure such as sleeping bays, which puts women
traders in a vulnerable position and exposes them to wayward border agents.
However,
for Ms Kabaso, it is still a success story as she now is able to put her son in
school, put food on the table and afford decent accommodation.
