[{"bbox": [97, 152, 1135, 205], "category": "Text", "text": "establishment of free zones. Reforming the investment-related measures based on the country's priorities is essential."}, {"bbox": [97, 231, 1135, 284], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Complex cross-border and taxation environment - a roadblock for continental integration and enhanced international trade"}, {"bbox": [97, 297, 1135, 511], "category": "Text", "text": "Uganda's complex cross-border environment constitutes a roadblock to achieve the country's vision of deepened continental integration and enhanced international trade. Uganda still faces high transport and trade costs making it less competitive than its neighbouring coastal countries. Transporters and freight forwarders report that the cost of trade in Uganda is nearly 4 times higher than in neighbouring countries. In the latest Doing Business report, Uganda ranked #127 on the Trading Across Border index, behind Kenya and Rwanda, among others. The challenge faced by traders when engaging in international trade is further exemplified by the large number of steps and documents required to import and export goods in and out of Uganda: for example, the export of coffee requires 36 unique interactions between traders and government agencies and no less than 62 different documents."}, {"bbox": [97, 521, 1135, 762], "category": "Text", "text": "The challenges faced by the business community to engage in international trade can be rooted back to a series of systematic issues. These include: 1) a lack of an effective institutional mechanism to continuously monitor key trade logistics performance indicators that would allow them to swiftly address potential bottleneck in cross-border formalities; 2) low transparency and predictability of Uganda's cross-border environment, for example, high uncertainty on the level of duties and taxes to be paid at the border, the origin determination and the duty exemption schemes, despite noticeable recent improvement with the implementation of the trade portal and the electronic single window; 3) high levels of controls and inspections at borders and/or inland container depots which can delay the release of shipments and increase the overall cost of import and exports in the country; 4) low capacity of businesses to understand and comply with cross-border requirements."}, {"bbox": [97, 772, 1135, 960], "category": "Text", "text": "The low degree of enforcement of trade facilitation obligations under the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and the AfCFTA is another testimony of the challenges faced by policy makers to reform Uganda's cross-border environment. As of 2023, Uganda has only implemented 8.4% of its commitments under the TFA and has notified 18 measures in category C: i.e. reforms for which the country requests technical assistance to ensure compliance. More specifically, Uganda is requesting support from international partners to review their legislative and regulatory frameworks, build capacity of its human resources in border regulatory agencies, upgrade their institutional procedures and introduce ICT solution to ease trade conditions."}, {"bbox": [97, 970, 1135, 1077], "category": "Text", "text": "The DTIS recognised trade facilitation reforms as one of the key drivers of Uganda's competitiveness and called for the institutionalization of the National Trade Facilitation Committee (NTFC), the establishment of a NTFC secretariat, and the provision of technical and financial assistance to URA to operationalize WTO TFA category C reforms."}, {"bbox": [97, 1104, 745, 1133], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Underdeveloped national quality infrastructure impairing exports"}, {"bbox": [97, 1143, 1135, 1331], "category": "Text", "text": "Ugandan producers and exporters face capacity challenges in complying with SPS and technical standards. To achieve the Government goals stated in the Uganda National Development Plan III (NDP III) by 2025, and in the Uganda vision 2040, in terms of increasing Uganda export volume, the MTIC recommends that the quality infrastructure be further strengthened with clearly defined standards. In 2013, the DTIS report revealed that Ugandan enterprises faced difficulties to meet TBT related requirements of export markets. Eight years later, evidence show that despite noticeable efforts, the national quality infrastructure in Uganda remains underdeveloped (DTIS report, 2022)."}, {"bbox": [97, 1341, 1135, 1635], "category": "Text", "text": "Since 2012, with the adoption of the National Standards and Quality Policy (NSQP) and its implementation plan, progress have been made in terms of numbers of standards developed and certified products, yet the absence of a national accreditation body and the presence of a weak framework for coordination and collaboration among the quality infrastructures do not allow for complete improvement of the national quality system. Additionally, even though the policy was adopted in 2012, there have been issues in coordinating and enforcing mechanisms acceptable to all stakeholders. Limited national capacity has led to decreased export potential and has been identified as serious trade obstacle for Uganda. An efficient National Quality Infrastructure comprises institutions including but not limited to a standardization body, metrology services, testing laboratories, and certification and inspection bodies. It needs an accreditation body as well to promote the recognition and international recognition of the conformity assessment services. All the technical services must be provided under a relevant and conducive technical regulatory framework. An efficient and effective Quality Infrastructure is essential for sustainable"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1681, 1143, 1707], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 8 of 31"}]