Covid-19 guidelines choke cross-border trade

As if the economic hardships exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic are not enough, cross-border traders have to put up with stringent Covid-19 policies such as exorbitant mandatory tests and travel restrictions, choking further their already struggling businesses.

When she started her business in 2012, Salome Ng’ambi could, on average, travel every month to South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia to buy clothes, shoes, bags and household items for restocking in her shop in Limbe, Blantyre.

“I have achieved so much through this business. Talk of paying for school fees for my children, rentals, food, clothes and all my needs and other family demands,” says the breadwinner in the family of six.

However, things took turns when Covid-19 came along. Travel restrictions were imposed and some borders closed. Businesses suffered a big blow as sales drastically slowed down.

All her years in business, Ng’ambi has been using road transport which, to her, is the best if she is to make enough profit out of her business. However, with the travel restrictions and border closures in some countries, she is forced to use air transport spending up to five times what she used to spend through road transport.

Ng’ambi is squeezed further through payments for rigorous mandatory Covid-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests.

She explains: “On average, I have to spend K450 000 on air ticket, pay K40 000 for a Covid-19 PCR test in Malawi that is only valid for 72 hours and another amount in the range of $80 to $100 for another test in the destination country. This is really eating on our profit and businesses are dying.”

Cross-border Traders Association of Malawi president Steve Yohane faults governments for setting up Covid-19 policies that are too restrictive, infringing on cross-border traders’ right to do business.

He suggests a review on Covid-19 policies not only in Malawi, but all Southern African Development Community (Sadc) member States to come up with harmonised policies that will ensure continued trade among its citizens even in the face of a pandemic.

Yohane further calls for introduction of recovery programmes such as loans targeting cross-border traders to bail them out of the hash business environment.

On PCR test costs, Yohane suggests that governments should come up with policies that would encourage people to take the Covid-19 vaccine and that vaccine certificates be used in place of PCR tests certificates.

He says: “Sadc leaders need to simplify Covid-19 measures, encourage all to be vaccinated, reach herd immunity and continue with business as before.”

In response, Minister of Information Gospel Kazako, who is also government spokesperson, says the RT-PCR test is recognised as the global, gold-standard for Covid-19 testing.

He says the inputs include wear and tear on the equipment and cost of reagents that go into the testing and “because it is automated to some extent, the charges per test tend to cluster around the same figure in pretty much all countries”.

Kazako says in almost all countries, testing for clinical and surveillance purposes is subsidised by governments. However, travel for tourism and trading purposes is generally uncontrolled, meaning that governments would be overwhelmed in terms of budgeting for the same. As a consequence, travel for tourism and trading purposes is charged in most countries and at roughly similar rates.

For instance, he says, Malawi charges $50 equivalent for locals, $100 equivalent for foreigners, Zimbabwe charged between $50 and 70$, depending on the lab.

UN Clinic charges $60, Eswatini charges 750 rand ($50) while UK charges £69, including for the mandatory second day test for travellers from non-risk countries such as Malawi.

On the use of vaccination certificates as a proxy, Kazako says: “Where the majority of the population is not yet vaccinated, a Covid-19 vaccination certificate is not adequate protection against importation of infection.”

He further explains that in the UK, for example, despite asking for a vaccination certificate, one has to do a mandatory PCR-based test two days after arrival.

Thus, until majority of the population, at least 70 percent, is vaccinated, the test remains the nearest measure of “no current infection”.

But Southern Africa Cross-border Traders Association regional executive board member Jacob Makambwe while agreeing on the need to have a larger population vaccinated for Covid-19 to reach herd immunity, maintains that the charges for PCR tests are on the higher side and need to be revised.

“We need to comply, demystify the myths against the vaccine so that more people get vaccinated. Everybody needs to take responsibility to ensure that they protect themselves and people around them,” says Makambwe.

However, he urges the leaders to employ policies that respond to the needs of the people and not in accordance with the demands of donors.

“We need standard Covid-19 policies for the region to enable people to move freely and trade with each other if we are to become economically viable.

“Sadc member States, for example, should standardise policies on PCR, vaccination and even on the use of electronic passports so that it does not complicate and implicate certain sectors.”

He further says to achieve economic recovery in the aftermath of the pandemic, Africa needs to work together towards achieving economic integration through policies such as free trade area.

Says Makambwe: “We are getting to the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, meaning that there should be more movement of people and goods now.

“If we continue to have a restrictive nature of allowing who is to come in a certain region and who is not, it might hinder the development and implementation of the agreement itself and the benefits of having a continent that is economically integrated.”

Southern Africa Cross- border Traders Association-(Zimbabwe) gender and social inclusion officer Mary Malunga amplifies the voice on the need for Sadc member States to put in place mechanisms such as financial packages for cross-border traders to help them get back to their businesses thereby enabling the entire region to achieve economic recovery.

“We have observed that women in the informal economy [mostly of whom are in cross-border trade] do not have any social protection such as insurance, pension or any funds to cushion them in terms of pandemics or natural disasters.

“This is why we are lobbying governments to come up with at least a disaster preparedness fund or some kind of social protection mechanism that will ensure that when disaster strikes, those in the informal economy are cushioned,” says Malunga.

The coming in of the Covid-19 pandemic has also seen the suspension of the application for the Simplified Trade Regime, an arrangement that allowed cross-border traders in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa region, to enjoy  free status when they import goods originating from member States.

As Makambwe puts it, cross-border traders are choked, they can’t breathe, and until policies are inclusive, accommodative and provide a respectable trading environment, it will be a long road to achieving economic recovery.