SITPRO welcomes the announcement yesterday by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) that funding has been secured to support an implementation programme for customs modernisation in the countries of the East African Community (EAC).
The programme has been developed by the EAC countries and the WCO Secretariat, in close co-operation with the EAC Secretariat, SITPRO and Business Action for Improving Customs Administration in Africa (BAFICAA). The Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency (SIDA) has now agreed to contribute almost 5 million Euros towards capacity building for customs modernisation in sub-Saharan Africa.
SITPRO's Chief Executive Malcolm McKinnon said, "We have been assisting the EAC countries and the WCO for the past twelve months in making the EAC programme a reality by helping to bring business inputs from the region into the planning process. We believe that the close involvement of the private sector in this reform programme is critical if it is to have credibility and success that is sustainable.
"Business is eager to see a regional Trusted Trader scheme such as the SAFE Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) scheme piloted as part of this programme. The benefits to the region from trade facilitation would be enormous. It would help to strengthen the process to achieve a fully functioning EAC Customs Union, increase intra-Africa trade in the East African region and increase transparency. This would benefit compliant and legitimate traders and businesses by building a better business environment, and in overall terms it would help to increase growth in the region and contribute to poverty reduction."
Notes for Editors
SITPRO, the UK's Trade Facilitation Agency, was established in 1970 to simplify international trade and much of its work has focused upon improving the procedures at ports and borders, looking at issues such as improving the arrangements for inspecting goods at the border and streamlining the submission of data to government, including the development of the UK International Trade Single Window, a tool that will allow a business to submit to one place all the data required by Government to clear import or export goods.
SITPRO is a non-departmental public body funded by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and undertakes policy work at national, European and international levels. For further information, visit SITPRO's website at http://www.sitpro.org.uk/.
BAFICAA
Business Action for Improving Customs Administration in Africa (BAFICAA) emerged from the private sector grouping set up to inform the Commission for Africa’s work. Its current corporate sponsors (Unilever, British American Tobacco and Diageo) all have significant business in and across Africa with extensive supply and distribution chains. Their teams on the ground have daily first hand experience of Africa’s Customs operations and a direct interest in helping to implement and monitor improvements. SITPRO is BAFICAA’s technical partner and a co-sponsor.
BAFICAA released a report, Customs and Business in Africa: A Better Way Forward Together, in 2006, which set out a number of local business recommendations for customs modernisation in East, West and Southern Africa (http://www.sitpro.org.uk/policy/baficaa/baficaareport.pdf ). The WCO programme provides a context for those recommendations to be implemented.
SITPRO News Release - 23 April 2008
Return to SITPRO News: News Releases
