SSACC Seminar on Trade Barriers

Through an interactive panel discussion with all participants Patricia Kempff, Head of Public Affairs at ABB, Bengt Karlsson and Hilda Sandberg Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ola Parnevall, Metrum AB, Bo Eskesen formerly Eltel and Ingrid Berglund from National Board for Trade shared their experiences on dealing with Trade Barriers in Africa.

The mix between public and private sector offered a fruitful exchange of insights. Discussions included main challenges of trade barriers when expanding business in Africa; Import Taxes/Tolls, Complex Tax System, Complex Bureaucracy, Language, Labor Laws and Corruption.

Experiences were shared on how barriers vary between different countries,  how to have awareness of barriers, how to report barriers, how to avoid them, how to get support from Swedish and foreign authorities, and how we can collaborate more.

A major conclusion from the seminar from the participants was that moving forward SSACC should take on the role as being the bridge in providing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on insights for trade barriers as experienced by private sector companies, as well as SSACC being a channel for the public sectors for spreading information regarding trade barriers to its members.