Notizie

Informal trade in Zambia increases significantly

Mercoledì 04 Maggio 2022 15:24

There are no translations available.

According to the results of a survey conducted on Zambia’s Small Scale Cross Border Trade (SSCBT) whose results were announced on Tuesday, 3 May 2022 during a half-day hybrid workshop held by the COMESA Secretariat and the Zambia Statistical Agency (ZamStats), informal trade in Zambia has significantly increased, especially at the Kasumbalesa border with DR Congo. At this border post, the main traded informal export products were fish and fish products, while rice was the main informal import product.

WEF-WTO report calls for interoperability between Single Window systems

Mercoledì 13 Aprile 2022 07:20

There are no translations available.

Trade agreements should recognize the critical issue of interoperability between Single Window (SW) systems. This is one of the main conclusions of a new published joint report of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The report notes that while many trade agreements, including the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement, support the use of SW systems to expedite the movement, release and clearance of goods, only a small number of recent trade agreements address the issue of interoperability between such systems.

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

Lunedì 11 Aprile 2022 14:30

There are no translations available.

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

Domenica 10 Aprile 2022 05:22

There are no translations available.

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

Venerdì 08 Aprile 2022 13:59

There are no translations available.

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).