**Recorded RC imports from the DRC are only slightly more important** , amounting to some 1.12 percent of total RC imports in value terms. Table 5 presents data obtained from the RC authorities and shows that imports from the DRC account for more than 10 percent of formal RC imports in only three goods: gasoline, glass bottles and motorcycles (see column 6 of Table 3). These data most likely tell us more about which types of goods are imported formally than about which types of goods are imported from DRC, as most cross-border trade simply seems to escape the regular control of the customs authorities. The overall figures are undoubtedly a large understatement of the true trade share and points toward considerable potential for an expansion of formal trade.

**Officially recorded trade flows between the DRC and the RC are largely limited to transit trade flows, which seem to be increasing.** According to official data supplied by RC authorities the weight of transit imports from DRC was about three times higher in 2007 than in the two preceding years, and transit trade seems to have increased further since. Briceño-Garmendia and Foster (2009) estimate the share of RC imports that transit through the DRC at some 8.6 percent. The data in Table 4, based on DRC statistics, also show some signs of a revival in transit trade since 2009. Official data certainly underreport the importance transit trade. The large informal flows of clothing and textiles from Brazzaville to Kinshasa, for instance, mostly originate in West Africa and arrive through Pointe Noire or Douala in Brazzaville. These large informal flows do not appear in any statistics.

_Table 4: DRC-RC Transit Trade, 2007-2010_

|||_2007_|_2008_|_2009_|_2010*_|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Vl USD 1000|<sup>DRC-RC</sup>|22,693|67,312|89,401|106,978|
|aue ( ,)|RC-DRC|0|0|n.a.|17|
|Wih|DRC-RC|22,168|52,436|84,129|106,256|
|egt (tons)|RC-DRC|0|0|4,000|11,160|
|Shi|DRC-RC|370|797|1,543|2,022|
|pments|RC-DRC|0|0|1|2|

Source: DGDA.

**Formal transit flows predominantly run from Kinshasa to Brazzaville** (see Table 4). Brazzaville is partially supplied through Matadi and Kinshasa due to the poor condition of the rail and road infrastructure in RC. Rail freight fares from Pointe Noire to Brazzaville are 90 to 165 percent higher than average tariffs per ton-kilometer charged by other African rail concessions (Pozzo di Borgo, 2008), and the road can only be passed during the dry season. There are also reports of sporadic military threats from former rebels. Work is being undertaken to repair the Pointe Noire-Brazzaville road. This is scheduled for completion in 2012. The RC government is furthermore preparing the privatization and repair of the railway from the coast to the capital.

**Port freight data point to customs underreporting but confirm general patterns of DRC-RC trade.** Volumes at the port of Brazzaville had peaked in 1984 with 590,000 tons (of which 51 percent was wood from upriver) but amounted to a mere 373,000 tons in 2009 (of which 8 percent was wood, see Table 5). At the same time, the volume of official imports from the DRC to the RC, and data on transit flows through the DRC only add up to 101,000 tons, compared to the 343,000 tons of incoming traffic from Kinshasa reported by Brazzaville port. More than half of trade handled by the port of Brazzaville is in fuel and cement. The volume of shipments into Brazzaville exceeds that of shipments out of Brazzaville by a factor of about ten. Outbound shipments may suffer from particular