Tanzania Undertakes Second Diagnostic Trade Integration Study To Boost Trade Sector

The Tanzanian Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) has recently met with representatives from the World Bank (WB), business associations, civil society, and development partners to conduct the second Diagnostic Trade Integration Study (DTIS) to boost the country’s foreign trade sector and define the new Tanzania Trade Integration Strategy (TTIS) for the next five years.

The meeting, held in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam on November 12^th, 2015 was officiated by the MIT Permanent Secretary Uledi A. Mussa and aimed at identifying priority areas in the foreign trade sector to update the DTIS undertook in 2005 by Tanzania together with other 11 countries from around the world.

The first DTIS, approved by the Tanzanian Government in 2007, helped to define the TTIS 2009-2013 whose framework supported the development of a single road map to strengthen the trade sector and narrow the gap between exports and imports by the development of bilateral assistance programs.

Trade development has been accepted as a tool for economic development since it connects producers with consumers balancing the supply -exports- and demand -imports- sides then becoming an important factor for economic growth and poverty reduction, explained Mr. A. Mussa.

The first DTIS also helped to diversified the exports after an analysis of the Tanzanian overall economic situation, however, the second DTIS will focus on three priority subsectors or products to develop them properly going one at a time and pass to the next one when the self-sustainability has been reached since the high rates of growth that Tanzania is experiencing, indicate a shift towards maturity, he added.

The implementation of the first DTIS helped to balance the relationship between imports and exports growth.

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), exports grew by 180.79% and imports by 246.11% in the period 2001-2007.

After the DTIS, exports grew by 107.80% while imports by 108.67%, in the period 2007-2013.

Additionally, Tanzanian exports were mostly represented by Agriculture and Metals products accounting for 79.4% of total exports in 2001, thanks to the DTIS they represent 63% of total exports as of 2013.

Regarding economic growth, Tanzania passed from growing 2.0% per annum in the period 1990-1995, to grow 4.0% in the period 1995-2000, 6.0% in 2000-2003, and over 7.0% in the last four years.