Africa not visible in global trade due to uncompetitiveness
Africa is not sufficiently visible on the global trade chain because of its inability to improve the environment for competitive trade, the Secretary General of the United Nations Conference of Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, has said.
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According to him, identifying opportunities in regional trade are key to the continent’s industrialisation drive.
“It is my considered view that the time is ripe for Africa to optimise opportunities and face the challenges of trade facilitation as a critical enabler of competitive inter-regional and global trade,” Dr Kituyi said.
Single Window conference
Dr Kituyi made the call at the just-ended second National Single Window conference on trade facilitation in Accra.
The programme was organised by West Blue Consulting (WBC), technical partners for the Ghana National Single Window (GNSW), in collaboration with the International Chamber of Commerce, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and other stakeholders to share experiences and best practices on single window and trade facilitation.
Participants were made up of representatives from the West Africa sub-region and experts from Thailand and the United Kingdom.
Intra-regional trade
Dr Kituyi indicated that businesses within Africa were losing grounds owing to their inability to trade among themselves.
UNCTAD, he said, believed that while the world continued to talk about equal trade and equal benefits of globalisation, Africa was losing out due to its inability to adapt automation to facilitate trade.
He said while the trading community was increasingly becoming sophisticated with the deployment of technologies, many less competitive businesses were losing jobs for the lack of automation and that “we are seeing the excitement of those who have found a niche for themselves in the global value chain.”
Opportunities
He pointed out that China had been able to trade over 600,000 people out of poverty, and India became a rising phenomenon, but Africa had remained stagnant and was not engaging sufficiently.
He also cited the example of Vietnam which, after emerging from the ravages of war in 1990, exported manufactured products to the tune of $32.5 billion while the whole of Africa, within the same period, exported only $16 billion manufactured exports.
Single Window
The secretary general of UNCTAD pointed out that the deployment and implementation of single window remained one of the best examples of creating an impersonal mechanism, simplified and predictable procedures that would limit face to face contact in trade across the continent.
Dr Kituyi said Ghana’s implementation of the single window in trade facilitation had made the country a leading trade destination on the continent, since processes were becoming more simplified and further standardising cross-border trade.
Commendation
Dr Kituyi commended Ghana’s role in many of the regional trade facilitation processes underway in West Africa.
West Blue
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of West Blue Consulting, Ms Valentina Mintah, for her part, said tremendous growth had been chalked up since the implementation of the single window in the country.
According to her, not only had import cargo time reduced at the country’s ports, but the intrusive inspection of imports by Customs has also reduced significantly.
She said the ratification of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) by many developing countries within a short time was a clear indication that the agreement would create several opportunities for Africa.
She remained hopeful that the single window concept would be fully embraced in the spirit of making Ghana a leading trading community in West Africa and the global trading system. — GB
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