| | | Title | Overcoming Trade Facilitation Barriers for MSMEs: Enhancing Opportunities under the AfCFTA | | Author | ACBF | | Subject | Trade facilitation, Africa's economic progress, African Continental Free Trade Agreement, AfCFTA, trade barriers, efficient movement of goods, services, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, MSMEs, Non-Tariff Barriers, NTBs, Technical Barriers to Trade, TBTs, Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures, SPS, corruption, Rules of Origin, RoO, trade opportunities, policy recommendations, TF challenges, capacity-building, successful case studies, trade preferences, standards harmonisation, digital tools, electronic certificates of origin, streamlined procedures, competitiveness, trade complexities. | | Date of Publication | 2024 | | Publisher | ACBF | | Keywords | Trade facilitation, Africa's economic growth, AfCFTA success, MSME challenges, Non-Tariff Barriers, NTBs, Technical Barriers to Trade, TBTs, Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures, SPS, Rules of Origin, RoO, trade opportunities, policy recommendations, capacity-building for MSMEs, standards harmonisation, digital tools for MSMEs, electronic certificates of origin, competitiveness under AfCFTA, overcoming trade barriers, simplifying trade procedures, MSME support, successful case studies. | | Abstract | Trade facilitation (TF) is crucial for Africa’s economic progress, particularly under the African Continental FreeTrade Agreement (AfCFTA), aiming to reduce trade barriers and enhance the efcient movement of goods and services. However, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) face disproportionate challenges dueto Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs), complex Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs), and stringent Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures. These hurdles, combined with corruption and burdensome Rules of Origin (RoO), impede their ability to fully capitalise on trade opportunities. This policy brief delves into these TF challenges, offering recommendations to policymakers and MSMEs on overcoming them and highlighting successful casestudies from companies or TF initiatives that have navigated these barriers effectively. Some of the recommendations are geared towards policymakers to enable MSMEs uptake of trade preferences, while other encourage MSMEs to actively leverage opportunities. Policymakers should simplify Rules of Origin (RoO) and harmonise standards across borders, while also providing targeted support and capacity-building for MSMEs to navigate trade complexities. MSMEs should be encouraged to leverage digital tools such as electronic certicates of origin and take advantage of streamlined procedures for non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to enhance their competitiveness under the AfCFTA. | | Filesize | 3301187 MB | | File Format | PDF | | [ View / download original document ] |
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