Despite growing evidence of the migration–trade nexus in the last few decades, policy makers and governments have put much more emphasis on reducing barriers to trade without proportionally lowering those to the movement of people. COMESA has developed policies and mechanisms to facilitate cross border trade, in particular for smaller scale traders, such as the Simplified Trade Regime (STR), the Passenger and Cargo Manifest System (PCMS), COMESA Trade Information Desks (TIDs) and the COMESA Green Pass, among others.
As part of an EU sponsored COMESA project titled “The COMESA Cross-Border Trade initiative: facilitating small-scale trade across borders”, Imani Development was commissioned to do a comprehensive Review of Existing Schemes to Facilitate the Cross-border Movement of Traders in the COMESA Region.
The focus of this assignment was to make recommendations, in the COMESA/Tripartite context, to contribute to enhanced design and effective implementation of trade-mobility facilitation instruments for small-scale cross border traders in the region. The intention was to take stock of the different mobility schemes, mechanisms, and frameworks that facilitate the movement of traders within the COMESA region and its neighbours, explicitly taking into account the difference between the intention (in writing) and practical use (the trader’s experience).
Imani Development also prepared a cross border mobility and trade schemes policy brief, which acts as a quick reference guide of findings and a basis for policy discussions.