Contribution of COMESA in the Fight Against Poverty in Zambia through Trade Facilitation

Joseph Selisho and Professor Jotham. C. Momba
Additional contact information
Joseph Selisho: niversity of Zambia, Institute of Distance Education, Lusaka-Zambia
Professor Jotham. C. Momba: University of Zambia, School of Humanities and Social Sciences,Department of Political and Administrative Studies, Lusaka-Zambia

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 2024, vol. 8, issue 1, 1444-1467

Abstract: Background: This study was undertaken due to high levels of poverty in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Member States. The study endeavored to explore the Contribution of COMESA in the fight against poverty in Zambia through trade facilitation. The study employed qualitative approach with an exploratory research design and critical case sampling to choose 13 key respondents to explore the contribution of COMESA in the fight against poverty in Zambia through trade facilitation. Primary data was analysed from 13 key respondents selected purposively using an interview guide to support secondary data. Data was analysed using thematic and content analysis. According to the World Bank (2017), trade facilitation contains provisions for expediting the movement, release, clearance of goods, goods in-transit, simplification, standardisation and harmonisation of procedures and associated information flows required to move goods from the seller to the buyer for payment. Zambia implemented COMESA’s simplified trade regime (COMESA-STR) for small cross- border traders. The Simplified Trade Regime (STR) basically aimed to formalise informal cross-border trade (ICBT) by putting in place instruments and mechanisms tailored to the trading requirements of small-scale traders that were decentralised to border areas where informal trade was rampant with the view to facilitate ease of access by small traders. The Simplified Trade Regime (STR) made possible for the small-scale cross-border traders to benefit from the COMESA’s preferential trading arrangement with the reduction of tariffs on selected goods. The concept One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) was also implemented in Zambia and other related trade facilitation measures to support businesses.

Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/ ... ssue-1/1444-1467.pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/ ... -trade-facilitation/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bcp:journl:v:8:y:2024:i:1:p:1444-1467

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science is currently edited by Dr. Nidhi Malhan

More articles in International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science from International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Dr. Pawan Verma ().