Uganda, Africa’s largest coffee exporter, has blamed its withdrawal from the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) agreement on what it said are unfair tariffs and other barriers that restrict export of processed coffee to Europe and elsewhere.
“The importing countries impose escalating tariffs and restrictions on imports of value-added coffee,” the the state-run Uganda Coffee Development Authority said, citing countries including Germany, Belgium and Denmark. President Yoweri Museveni has long complained about what he says are lopsided trade rules that rob the likes of Uganda of value in key commodities such as coffee.
What do you think could Uganda do to give importers a push to ease restrictions?
Opinion
African countries should strength the trade agreements through the new launched Africa Free Continental Trade Area agreements. The continent has a population of about 1.3 Billion people which is enough reason to push countries to engage more in intra-Africa trade. This is going to help develop the continent further because profits from the trade should no longer be externalized and the pro-development conditions in the Free Continental Trade Area agreements to encourage trade among member countries.
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