Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (GATF), a public-private partnership dedicated to international trade facilitation which supports governments in developing and least developed countries in implementing the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement, published the Annual Report 2022. The report describes ten projects implemented in seven countries, including in Africa, where the main results of regulatory reforms, process simplifications and digitalization projects in Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia are presented. The report shows that implementation of trade facilitation reforms does not happen in a vacuum. These reforms cannot be designed by uniquely taking into account the needs and perspective of traders, but also the interests of governments, or they risk to fail. The report, in particular, raises a red flag on some problems that are common to many other African countries. Among them, the one that emerges more clearly from the document is the fear of revenue losses and the over-sensitiveness by border agencies to risks of frauds, two factors that explain why such agencies tend to implement stricter controls at borders that often discourage trade.

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Interview released to Il Sole 24 Ore on the competition between China and United Arab Emirates for the control of ports in Africa. The article is available in Italian.

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