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tralac’s Daily News Selection
The selection: Thursday, 7 July 2016
Inquiry into UK’s Africa Free Trade initiative: extension to deal with Brexit issues (APPG)
We are now extending the Inquiry to incorporate the potential implications for UK-Africa trade relations from the UK leaving the European Union (Brexit). Specifically, a second Inquiry Hearing will be held in Parliament on Tuesday 12th July. In addition, the timeline for submission of Written Evidence has now been extended to 31st July 2016. The Inquiry Committee will then seek to present and publish its Final Report in September 2016, when a new UK Prime Minister and ministerial team will be in post. The following questions are being used to guide the Inquiry’s taking of evidence in relation to Brexit:
Trade policies: How would the existing trade arrangements (both non-reciprocal trade preference arrangements and reciprocal trade preference arrangements such as the Economic Partnership Agreements) between the UK and African countries look immediately after Brexit? What steps would need to be taken by the UK Government to ensure Africa’s exports to the UK were not interrupted upon the UK’s withdrawal from the EU? What are the potential risks and opportunities for UK-Africa trade relations arising from Brexit?
Aid-for-trade: Should the UK’s aid-for-trade programmes evolve to reflect the new trading relationships between the UK and African countries post-Brexit? Does Brexit potentially open up new channels through which the UK can use trade and investment as a vehicle to reduce poverty in Africa?
Inclusive trade: Are there specific potential implications from Brexit for small-scale traders and farmers in Africa? If so, are there ways for the UK government to ensure that post-Brexit trade policies would be pro-poor and equitable for men and women in Africa?
Less aid money, less influence: Brexit’s likely hit to the UK’s development role (The Guardian)
The first signs of the Department for International Development’s immediate priorities may come in the outcomes of the bilateral and multilateral spending reviews, which Greening told parliament should be released “in the early summer”. An EU spokesperson said it was too early to speculate on how Brexit would affect Britain’s role in the international aid community. “That will be addressed in due course, once negotiations with the UK begin on its withdrawal agreement as well as on the agreement concerning its future relationship with the EU. For the time being, nothing changes.”
Botswana: Diamonds safe from Brexit (Daily News)
The divorce between the UK and European Union, called Brexit, would not have an impact on diamond market. Head of Operations at Diamond Trading Company Botswana Mr Joseph Ikotlhaeng said major market for Botswana diamonds are the United States of America, Japan, India and China. Mr Ikotlhaeng said the USA represents 40% of the world market while Belgium is the only important European market.
The President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa: Rwanda/Nigeria trip recommendations report (USTR)
Over four days in Nigeria and Rwanda, we focused on key issues for African development and areas of interest from the American business community. Throughout the trip, we also focused on access to capital, skills training, and the importance of women’s participation in the labor force and entrepreneurship. On the basis of these conversations, and our continued consideration of African economic trends, this report contains recommendations in five areas:
‘Modi in Africa’ – selected updates on trade and investment issues:
India has had trade relations with Africa from first century CE (Indian Express)
PM Modi has touched down at the Mozambique airport, kickstarting his four-nation tour of the African continent. In the next five days, as he visits South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya, the agenda on his mind would be to enhance trade and maritime cooperation along with increasing collaboration in matters of energy and food security.
India takes its contract farming model to Mozambique (Hindustan Times), Modi keen to forge new ties with SA (IOL), India-Africa ties: pitching higher (Gateway House), Can PM make India an alternative for China? (First Post)
BRICS Bank: Maasdorp on BRICS bank's 'openness' (Devex)
The New Development Bank - a financial institution founded by the so-called BRICS emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - will open its membership to other countries in the next few years, the bank’s vice president and chief financial officer told Devex in an exclusive interview. The opening of membership, likely to happen in the next three years or earlier, will also see the shareholding of the five member countries of the $100bn institution significantly reduced. That could help placate some critics, who have argued that the Shanghai-based bank is a dedicated political and economic tool of the five countries currently involved. The bank has so far approved around $811m in loans.
The GIBS Dynamic Market Index 2016 (pdf, GIBS)
The GIBS DMI 2016 is a global study of six enabling ‘pillars’ of market dynamism across 144 countries measured between 2007 and 2014. The GIBS DMI is a toolkit that measures which countries have undergone change and improvement (or deterioration) in six enabling pillars (comprising institutions and society measures). The six pillars include:
SADC member states urged to establish more joint investments on energy, water (Daily Mail)
The workshop, 20-21 June, held under the theme: “Accelerating energy delivery and access to water resources in the SADC region – a collective approach”, facilitated exchange of ideas and proposed recommendations towards the energy and water crisis in the region. After deliberations, the workshop recommended, inter alia: (i) The SADC Secretariat should as a matter of urgency initiate a study on transferring water from the water-rich basins to the water stressed parts of the region expeditiously, through inter/intra basin transfers. (ii) Member States must be encouraged to embark on intensive energy and water demand side management strategies which combine the use of high efficiency technologies, methodologies and better awareness creation as a matter of urgency. (iii) Member States who are not connected in the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) transmission network must be encouraged to get connected to accelerate the respective on-going interconnector projects to enable them to benefit from trading among the Member States. Though SAPP was established more than 20 years ago, three mainland SADC Member States are still not connected.
Energy-water nexus in Southern Africa: background paper to support dialogue in the region (World Bank)
The value of this paper is in bringing together the latest knowledge work and other key information relevant for energy-water nexus dialogue in Southern Africa. This information has been derived from a number of fragmented sources, and an effort has been made to present the information in a logical framework, in one document that can help initiate discussions in the region. The issues and implications that surround the energy-water nexus are numerous. For the five focus countries - South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, and Swaziland - the paper considers national water sector priorities, energy sector priorities, the extent of coordination between the two, and how these priorities fit into a broader agenda of regional coordination.
SADC Transfrontier Conservation Areas Network: update (Daily News)
In an effort to complement the region’s ongoing efforts to address natural resources management challenges, the SADC Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCA) Network held a three-day symposium in Gaborone from 3-5 July. Officiating at the symposium, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Mr Elias Magosi said biodiversity loss as characterised by dramatic wildlife declines in some key hotspots around the world, was now considered a grand challenge on par with climate change, food security, energy security and public health, among others. For this reason, he said “embracing TFCAs will go a long way towards also addressing these grand challenges.”
Regional MPs discuss security in Great Lakes region: FP-ICGLR update (New Times)
Parliamentary leaders meeting in Kigali for a two-day 14th Ordinary Session of the Executive Committee of the Forum of Parliaments in member states of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (FP-ICGLR) have made regional security and political situation a focus of their discussions. At the sessions which kicked off yesterday at the Rwandan Parliament, members of the committee gave presentations and debated on the security and political situation in ICGLR member countries, especially focusing on Burundi, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and South Soudan.
The institutionalisation of mediation support within the ECOWAS Commission (ACCORD)
The PPB identifies the uniqueness of ECOWAS’s experiences in interventions in the 1990s, and the subsequent importance accorded to preventive diplomacy and mediation as a key factor that informed the decision to establish a mediation support structure – in contrast to using an ad hoc arrangement to backstop its mediation efforts in the past. This new arrangement, the PPB argues, will ensure that mistakes such as the marginalisation of ECOWAS in mediation processes in the region, the disconnect between the ECOWAS Commission and its appointed mediators, facilitators and special envoys, are remedied.
ECOWAS Regional Center for Disease Control: update (TODAY)
Nigeria's Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, has flagged off the ECOWAS Regional Center for Disease Control with a view of increasing the surveillance and information system for early detection, strengthening of laboratory capacity, preparedness and emergency response and retention of trained healthcare workforce in West Africa. The Director General of the West African Health Organisation, Dr. Crespin Xavier, said that the governing council has difficult task of supervising the activities of the centre in strict compliance with ECOWAS rules and regulations. [Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement (REDISSE) Project update (World Bank)]
Failure to prepare for and adapt to the 'new normal' of increasing climate-linked emergencies such as El Niño could put global development targets at risk and deepen widespread human suffering in areas already hard hit by floods and droughts, top United Nations officials said in Rome today. According to the UN, scientists are predicting an increasing likelihood of the opposite climate phenomenon, La Niña, developing. This will increase the probability of above average rainfall and flooding in areas affected by El Niño-related drought, whilst at the same time making it more likely that drought will occur in areas that have been flooded due to El Niño. The UN estimates that without the necessary action, the number of people affected by the combined impacts of the El Niño/La Niña could top 100 million. [Southern Africa's silent food crisis: CSIS report]
The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2016 (FAO)
Fishery products accounted for 1% of all global merchandise trade in value terms, representing more than 9% of total agricultural exports. Worldwide exports amounted to $148bn in 2014, up from $8bn in 1976. Developing countries were the source of $80bn of fishery exports, providing higher net trade revenues than meat, tobacco, rice and sugar combined.
International regulatory co-operation: the role of international organisations (pdf, OECD)
This report compiles the information collected from 50 IOs and provides an analysis of their governance, operational modalities and tools in support of international rule-making. It identifies key lessons and messages on how IOs are organised to deliver on IRC and areas of challenges that may weaken their role. This work confirms the wide diversity of IOs involved in standard-setting and rule-making activities. The traditional model of inter-governmental organisation (IGOs) has flourished along with the development of new forms of organisations with different legal standing and memberships. As a result, the OECD survey respondents cover a range of different types of organisations: inter-governmental (with either closed or open membership), supra-national, trans-governmental and private. [Building regulatory policy systems in OECD countries: draft analytical paper (pdf)]
Global Forum on Competition: update: The 15th OECD Global Forum on Competition will take place in Paris on 1-2 December 2016. High-level competition officials from more than 100 delegations worldwide will come together to discuss:
Obasanjo calls for single currency for West Africa (TODAY)
Sahel and West Africa Club: weekly newsletter
US international trade in goods and services: May 2016 statistics (pdf, UN Census Bureau)
Lungu targets turning Zambia into manufacturing hub (Daily Mail)
DRC's illegal gold trade is benefiting foreign companies (Global Witness)
Mauritius: Removal of items under the list of controlled goods at export (GoM)
Port performance: linking performance indicators to strategic objectives (pdf, UNCTAD)
China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation wants to increase business in Mozambique (MacauHub)
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