Implementing the TFA: Trade Facilitation Activities in Zambia

The document analyzes the impact and implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) across Africa, with a detailed focus on Zambia. It explores the benefits of trade facilitation, such as increased exports and regional integration, while highlighting systemic barriers including inadequate infrastructure, reliance on donor funding, and poor inter-governmental coordination. Through a case study of four Zambian border posts—Nakonde, Kasumbalesa, Kazungula, and Chirundu—the paper illustrates the gap between high-level political commitment and on-the-ground operational realities, such as the failure to implement functional Single Window systems and the regression of previously successful One-Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) due to lack of data-sharing and poor donor exit strategies.

• Implementing the TFA could significantly boost economic performance for developing nations; specifically, Least Developed Countries (LDCs), mostly in Africa, could see exports increase by up to 35%, while developing countries overall could see a 3.5% increase in exports and a 20% increase in export diversification.
• African countries face severe systemic inefficiencies at borders; for 16 landlocked African nations, average customs transactions require 20 to 30 steps, 40 documents, and 200 data elements, with 60% to 70% of data being re-keyed at least once.
• The TFA's Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) provisions allow developing countries to categorize commitments into Category A (immediate), Category B (after a transition), and Category C (requiring donor assistance). However, many African countries have not yet categorized nearly half of their notifications, and Category C implementation is often delayed by a lack of technical capacity to conduct needs assessments.
• The TFA Facility, while intended to bridge funding gaps for Category C reforms, is often a 'measure of last resort' and does not replace bilateral aid. There are concerns that over-reliance on donor funding for National Trade Facilitation Committees (NTFCs) threatens their long-term sustainability.
• Zambia has demonstrated strong political will to transition from being 'landlocked' to 'land-linked,' aiming to become a trade hub for SADC and COMESA. This is evidenced by the draft Border Management and Trade Facilitation Bill 4 of 2018, which seeks to make the NTFC a statutory body funded by government budgets.
• Zambia's border reforms are hindered by uneven ICT upgrades across government agencies and a conflict between trade facilitation goals and the government's focus on meeting high revenue collection targets for border agencies.
• The Nakonde-Tunduma OSBP is operational only on a pilot basis due to incomplete construction in Tanzania and inadequate hard infrastructure on the Zambian side, suggesting that soft reforms were prioritized over necessary physical upgrades.
• The Kasumbalesa border is highly problematic due to political instability in the DRC, arbitrary payments enforced by DRC officials, and a lack of shared ICT infrastructure, leading to massive truck backlogs.
• The Chirundu OSBP, once a model of success that reduced clearance times to a few hours, has regressed due to poor donor exit strategies, lack of data-sharing between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and infrastructure that cannot accommodate current traffic volumes.
• The Kazungula OSBP project faced delays and design changes (increasing the bridge length to 923m) because Zimbabwe initially refused passage through its territory, though recent agreements on data-sharing between Zambia and Botswana are positive signs.

APA

Parshotam, A. (2019). Implementing the TFA: Trade Facilitation Activities in Zambia. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Occasional-Paper-298-parshotam.pdf

Chicago

Parshotam, Asmita. Implementing the TFA: Trade Facilitation Activities in Zambia. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2019. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Occasional-Paper-298-parshotam.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Parshotam |first1=Asmita |title=Implementing the TFA: Trade Facilitation Activities in Zambia |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=June 2019 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Occasional-Paper-298-parshotam.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{parshotam2019implementing, author = {Parshotam, Asmita}, title = {{Implementing the TFA: Trade Facilitation Activities in Zambia}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2019}, month = jun, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Occasional-Paper-298-parshotam.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }