Hi {{first_name|Operators}},

As it turns out, free trade areas and other regional economic organising models work — when you work them. One of today’s featured stories highlights how fashion designers, artisans and traders in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda are enjoying the fruit of a functional East Africa Community, the trade bloc made up of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and South Sudan.

First, you make the bloc. We’ve mostly ticked this box — there’s the EAC of course, as well as ECOWAS in West Africa and SADC in the South. [North Africa has the AMU, but it’s mostly inactive due to political tension in the region.] All this takes is recognising that there’s obvious value in doing more business with the countries that it’s (usually) easiest and cheapest for your country’s businesses to reach — your neighbours.

Next, you align and harmonise in the policy integration process: Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate until your trade policies and regulations mirror each other in a productive way that actually eases trade. It’s best to agree on some rules for that first, which you typically do at the trade bloc level. For example, the EAC’s Common Market Protocol is the set of rules that allows free movement of persons, labour, goods, and services while the Simplified Trade Regime cuts paperwork and tax at every border.

Then, you benefit. Businesses have access to more suppliers and customers, deliveries that used to take weeks start to take days, they spend less on the costs that come with sourcing and selling, and professionals expand their horizons with cheaper access to events and collaborators beyond their local network. Happy days.

It would be lovely if those 3 steps always worked that simply, but whatever the challenges involved, it’s worth it when you work it. That’s why there’s so much riding on the proper implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

If you’ve been in business long enough to witness the state of affairs before and after trade policy integrations in your region, what’s changed?

With thanks,
Modupe