COMESA simplified trade regime bearing fruit

 VIOLET MENGO

 Livingstone

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.

 

VIOLET MENGO

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

ZAMBIA climate change and development ambassador Abel Musumali has called on African countries to consider restoring and rehabilitating dambo areas for increased vegetable production.

 Mr Musumali said dambo areas on the continent are under threat both by climate change and human induced activities such as cutting trees, unsustainable agricultural practices and uncontrolled abstraction of water for agriculture and household activities.

 He was speaking at the Africa Youth Conference on Climate Change that took place on Tuesday ahead of the main conference.

 This was during a plenary on African Youth responses to climate change and food security, action from frontlines: opportunities and challenges.

 He said the main purpose of restoring the dambos is to increase production for tomato and cabbage growing which will in turn improve food security and household income.

 "In Zambia, farmers especially women and youths are being trained on how to manage the dambos from further degradation in Chibombo district," Mr Musumali said.

 He said one of the mechanisms to rehabilitate and restore the dambos is through the use of organic manure, tree planting and provision of irrigation pumps for controlled water abstraction.

 Mr Musumali said Zambia is also exploring the public private partnership (PPP) initiative and joint ventures of farmers and private companies in the protection of dambos and growing of good agricultural products.

 He said they are also being trained on value addition and having access to the market.

 He encouraged delegates to venture into the restoration of sensitive ecosystems such as dambos, swamps and streams that are guided by research in order to make an informed decision at community and national level.

 Close to 500 delegates comprising African negotiators on climate change, experts and  researchers  have gathered here for a three-day climate change deliberations that will culminate in the continent coming up with a common voice to the UN climate change summit taking place in Paris this December.

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CCDA5 opens in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

October 28, 2015

VIOLET MENGO

Victoria Fall, Zimbabwe

 

THE fifth African climate change and development conference opened yesterday with a call for the continent to demand a fair, just and binding treaty at the conference of parties (COP) taking place in Paris this December.

 

Economic Commission for Africa Director in charge of special initiative division Fatima Denton said Africa should demand a treaty abetted by a means of implementation that will align Africa’s commitment to development priorities.

 

Dr Denton said the priorities for Africa includes among others the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDCs) that will support ambitions towards energy efficiency, agricultural transformation and demand financial commitments.

 

“In Paris, we demand that the sacred principle of common but differentiated responsibility be given a central place, but whilst we revive this principle, we must also use it to remind ourselves that the job is not done until we take our rightful place in our effort to curb emissions, irrespective of our levels of culpability,” Dr Denton said.

 

She said the meeting is about Africa’s collective security for today and tomorrow.

 

“The urgent agenda now, is to figure out how fast we can run to repair and respond to the critical cascading challenges ranging from alarming rate of degradation of water resources, soils, food systems, land, trees and forests that we rely on to sustain ourselves,” she said.

 

Dr Denton said Africa is keen to be a strong participant and contributor to a successful outcome in Paris.

 

The conference is being held under the theme dubbed: Africa, climate change and sustainable development: What is at stake at Paris and beyond.

Africa Development Bank representative Mary Monyau said the Bank has stepped up its support for African countries to build resilient to the impact of climate change.

 

“Between 2011 and 2014, the bank spent nearly US$7 billion towards climate finance in Africa,” she said.

 

Ms Monyau said the bank will step up climate finance by 40 percent to US$5 billion per year by 2020.

 

She said the investment will be delivered within the framework of five priority areas that build on the bank strategy for 2013 to 2022.

 

And Zimbabwe Vice president who officially opened the conference said Zambia and Zimbabwe are grappling with power deficit due to low water levels necessitated by low water levels in the water bodies.

 

He appealed to delegates to represent Africa effectively at COP21.

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VIOLET MENGO

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

 

ZAMBIA’s ambassador to Zimbabwe Ng’ona Mwelwa Chibesakunda says crop diversification which government has embarked on remains key to Zambia’s food security amid climate change challenges.

 

Mr Chibesakunda said in an interview here that with diversification, it is unlikely for the country to experience food insecurity as there will be abundance of different crops to sustain people.

 

He said Zambia has been fortunate in the region to receive enough rainfall in some parts of the country that has helped the country to stock enough maize and export some.

 

“For Zimbabwe as you are aware for two years now, the country has had very little rainfall as a result very little maize has been grown, but Zambia has been luck that one part of the country had enough rain and produced a lot of maize which we are now exporting to some countries like Zimbabwe,” Mr Chibesakunda said.

 

The ambassador said conference like the climate change taking place here are very important for Africa because they help to address critical challenges such the shortage of rainfall in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique and Botswana.

 

He said it is from such gathering that solutions to difficulties countries are facing are found as ideas are floated by delegates that offer solution and hope.

 

“In some parts of Zambia where we do not have enough rainfall, conferences like this will help by coming up with ideas of what type of crops to grow. It gives us time to reflect on whether to continue growing maize which requires a lot of rainfall or switch to other types of crops,” he said.

 

Mr Chibesakunda said with diversification, the nutrition status of the people is improved and enhanced.

 

He said nutrition is mainly concerned with what type of food to grow. “If for example we depend on maize, surely we can also grow other crops that are drought resistant like sorghum and millet.”

He said crops like cassava and millet do not need long period of rain can also be encouraged to enhance people’s nutrition.

 

Mr Chibesakunda said he is impressed with the attendance of Zambian experts at the conference because it the experts that advises government on most critical pertaining to the development of the country.

 

And the ambassador said Zambians living in Zimbabwe are happy with government coming up with the diaspora policy.

Zambia's ambassador to Zimbabwe, third from right with the Zambian delegation members at the climate  change and development conference that took place from 28th to 31 October 2015
 

 

He said many Zambians have expressed interest in returning to Zambia to help develop the country following government’s call to Zambian living in diaspora to take part in the development.

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