How African economies perform in terms of trade facilitation?

To help countries benchmark and reduce the time and cost of trading across border, the Regional Commissions of the United Nations jointly conduct, every two years, the UN Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation. The Survey, which currently covers 143 economies around the globe, and 58 measures related to the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), leads to the production of a Global Report and five Regional Reports, covering 5 main regional areas in the world (Africa, Asia and Pacific, Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and Caribbean), whose aim is to provide insightful information on the areas these countries have to focus in order to improve their trade capacity.

More generally, these surveys offer guidance to policy makers in the different countries in the world on how to harness trade as a key means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an action plan adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 that provides a blueprint for peace and prosperity and for ending poverty, and that for this purpose identifies 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which all countries (both developed and developing) must pursue in order to achieve such results.

The latest data available covers a total of 32 African States (with important economies, such as South Africa, Ghana and Kenya that are missing in the survey), and shows that Mauritius, Morocco and Mozambique are the countries that perform better in terms of trade facilitation. Surprisingly, Sudan appears among the 5 top countries, despite the country has not yet developed an internet portal with information of existing import-export regulations (that the analysis indicates as partially implemented), and an advance ruling system on tariff classification and origin of imported goods.

On the opposite edge of the scale, South Sudan is indicated as the worst performer, having the country implemented very little paperless trade measures (it has to be remembered however that South Sudan is still in the accession phase to the WTO and as such is not bound by the WTO’s TFA). Madagascar and Cabo Verde, on the other hand, are indicated as the less transparent economies in Africa (rated at 0%), because of the unavailability of information regarding import, export and transit regulations and processes and the absence of a system of advance ruling systems on tariff classification and origin of imported goods.