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EU Customs Union, a "less than perfect" Customs Union

Monday, 11 April 2022 14:30

The Wise Persons Group (WPG), an independent high-level group comprised of members from politics, industry, trade and academia, recently issued a report analyzing, on request of the European Commission, the challenges that EU Customs currently face, by examining current rules, procedures and governance and advising on how these can be improved. Their recommendations will feed into the customs reform package, which the Commission will present by the end of this year.

ICC and WTO issue guidelines on Standards for digitalisation of cross-border trade

Sunday, 10 April 2022 05:22

Trading across borders is a notoriously complex process and highly dependent on paper documents, in spite of decades long efforts to digitalise. A cross-border transaction involves multiple actors and on average requires the exchange of 36 documents and 240 copies. However, currently, less than one percent of trade documents are fully digitised. Although the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalisation, the lack of adoption of data standards and of a common format for data exchange significantly hinders the seamless data flow from one end of the supply chain to the other. Standards adoption also remains limited in large part due to the complexity and fragmentation of the standards landscape.

Democratic Republic of Congo becomes the 7th Partner State of the East African Community

Friday, 08 April 2022 13:59

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) officially became on 8^th April 2022 the seventh Partner State of the East African Community by signing the Treaty of accession to the EAC (read the official communiqué).

SADC Regional Customs Transit Guarantee starts pilot test along the North-South Corridor

Tuesday, 05 April 2022 08:07

In developing countries, cases where trucks or containers are offloaded in a transit country without these operations being recorded are very frequent. Transit operations carry a high revenue risk for customs administrations, especially when goods are subject to high duty or tax rates and this is why Customs usually put in place strict measures to protect their financial interests against the risk of illegal diversion of goods to their markets while in transit through their territory. One of these measures is represented by the request of an insurance bond or a bank guarantee that makes possible for the administration to recover more easily duties owed in case of irregular discharge of the transit procedure or when acts of fraud take place.

COMESA report analyses policy developments in 7 member states related to informal economy and informal cross-border trade

Monday, 04 April 2022 05:42

A new report published by COMESA examines the informal economy in 7 COMESA Member States (DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe), where government authorities are seeking ways not only to guide the development of the informal economy, but also to increase formal small-scale cross-border trade flows leading to higher revenue, as well as greater security and higher incomes for small-scale cross-border traders.

News

EU Customs Union, a "less than perfect" Customs Union

ICC and WTO issue guidelines on Standards for digitalisation of cross-border trade

Democratic Republic of Congo becomes the 7th Partner State of the East African Community

SADC Regional Customs Transit Guarantee starts pilot test along the North-South Corridor

COMESA report analyses policy developments in 7 member states related to informal economy and informal cross-border trade

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