Success Story: Trade Hub Improves Competitiveness

Key results:

• Assisting more than 500 southern African firms with advice and information about exporting to the US, including facilitating nearly 2,000 buyer-seller relationships through trade shows, business-to-business events and buyer engagement.
• The adoption, throughout SADC, of a single customs declaration form, replacing up to 15 different forms previously used.
• Acting as the preferred partner of the World Customs Organization and World Trade Organization to conduct studies to quantify the time taken, and thus cost, of moving goods across borders; and then propose solutions.
• Carrying out an annual audit on the implementation of the SADC Protocol on Trade, which reviews tariff reductions as well as other barriers to intra-regional trade.
• Providing trade-related capacity building and technical assistance to hundreds of individuals and dozens of companies and government officials.

Going forward, SATH will, among others:

• Work with the South African Commodities Exchange and Zambian Agricultural Commodities Exchange (ZAMACE) to increase price discovery through introducing a futures contract that will allow farmers/processors to lock in the prices they will receive at a future date.
• Reduce transport and transit costs by streamlining border procedures and automating interconnectivity between different customs administrations through a partnership with Microsoft.
• Work with the Southern African Development Community to ensure effective implementation of the SADC Trade Protocol.
• Enhance the contribution of private sector production of clean electricity to meet expanding regional energy needs.