News
tralac’s Daily News Selection
The selection: Wednesday, 13 July 2016
Today, in Dar es Salaam: SG CEO Forum and EABC Public Private Dialogue
Today, in Washington: launch of the Commission on Global Poverty's interim report on measuring poverty
Ongoing in New York: High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, 11-20 July
Next week, in Washington: the White House Global Development Summit, 20 July
Liberalization of African economies will spur further growth suggest African Union envoys (Coastweek)
African economies need to lessen regulations and restrictions of markets in order to allow intra-Africa trade and induce greater structural change of the continent, say participants at the ongoing 27th summit in Kigali. Cherif Mahamat Zene, Chad’s ambassador to Ethiopia and permanent representative to the AU said: “We want to see liberalized African economies because they have the potential to change the economic geography of the region. Low intra-African trade and limited integration pose a serious challenge to boosting the global competitiveness of African economies."
Sebade Toga, Togo’s ambassador: “We want our leaders to address the issue of restricted economies in Africa. Many initiatives to enhance Africa integration and trade have been taken into consideration but not followed through.”
Hope Tumukunde, Rwanda’s ambassador: “Restricted economies is one of the key factors hindering the successful integration of the African continent into the global trading system due to high trade costs. Liberalization result in increased aggregate regional demand which in turn would lead to higher industrial production in the region.”
Stephen Lande and Dennis Matanda: Economic Partnership Agreements – a case of unfortunate timing? (Manchester Trade)
Today, just as African countries work frantically to meet an October 2016 deadline for acceding to their respective EPAs, the recent Brexit vote justifies a moratorium; one in which both Africans and the EU reflect on Brexit’s impact on Africa, and agree upon (i) measures to stave any negative repercussions to the progress Africa has made on integration, and (ii) measures that avoid any loss of preferential access into those third countries giving Africa preferential access for her exports.
While its becoming clearer that in light of Brexit, Brussels intends to play ‘hard ball’ to enforce key tenets such as EPAs, it is, perhaps, now more incumbent upon the African Union to hold a high-level political meeting to request that the EU extend for a 2 to 5-year period, the earlier-mentioned October EPA deadline. Putting this stay request on record is especially critical because some provisions of fully-implemented EPAs could have an adverse effect a nascent African Economic Community. If the EU granted a delay, they would have helped advance the freer movement of goods throughout sub-Saharan Africa; of course, allowing a recently renewed non-reciprocal AGOA to reach its true potential for the congressionally-mandated 10-year period.
UK firms could get trade boost with rapidly developing African nations thanks to Brexit (Daily Express)
Pound's Brexit plunge unlikely to bring boost exports at 1992, 2008 rate (Reuters)
UK exit from EU won't affect EU-South Africa trade: Hollande (China Post)
David Dollar: Setting the record straight on China’s engagement in Africa (Brookings)
My study [launching today], China’s engagement with Africa: from natural resources to human resources, aims to objectively assess this important new development in the world. It has six main findings. Extract: It is unrealistic to expect the China-Africa economic relationship to change overnight. Nor would it be reasonable to expect large volumes of Chinese manufacturing to move to the continent in the near future; it would be more natural for value chains to migrate from China to nearby locations such as Vietnam and Bangladesh. But if even small amounts of manufacturing shift, this could make a significant difference for African economies, which are starting out with an extremely low base of industrialization. And it is useful to have a long-term vision that an economic relationship that started out very much centred on natural resources should shift over time to a greater focus on human resources.
Harsh Pant: Towards a continental shift (The Hindu)
It is a fallacy to pit India against China in so far as their ties with Africa are concerned. With its annual trade of around $200bn with Africa, China is a much bigger player, but India has its own strengths in its dealings with Africa. Its democratic traditions make it a much more comfortable partner for the West compared to China in cooperating on Africa-related issues. India is viewed as a more productive partner by many in Africa because Indian companies are much better integrated into African society and encourage technology transfers to their African partners. New Delhi will have to leverage its own strengths in making a lasting compact with Africa and regain its lost presence on the continent.
Implications of the Trade in Services Agreement for developing countries (DIE)
We argue that the most substantial impact of TiSA on developing countries will likely come indirectly from the high regulatory standards that will need to be met by all services exporters, including third countries in trade agreements with TiSA members, as well as through the diversion of investment flows and global value chain operations to the TiSA area. We show that accession may represent a notable challenge for many emerging economies due to the high degree of regulatory heterogeneity between them and TiSA participants. However, we argue that there are ways of making the agreement more development-friendly. [The analysts: Sherry Stephenson, Alexandros Ragoussis, Jimena Sotelo]
Tourism sector highlighted as important contributor to trade and development (WTO)
WTO members, on 12 July, recognized tourism as an important services export which can help small economies with their economic development. Members discussed tourism’s “value chains” at a meeting of the Committee on Trade and Development’s Work Programme on Small Economies. Tourism is now the third largest export in terms of global earnings after fuel and chemicals, according to a representative from the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Tourism is responsible for one out of 11 jobs and 10% of the world’s economic output.
Canadian International Development Platform: Data Report 2016
International trade component (pdf): Key trends and patterns in international trade, focusing on Canada’s trade with developing countries. How Canada performs on select measures including share of trade with developing countries, policy coherence from a development perspective, what Canada sells and buys from poorer developing countries, balance of trade, growth etc.
COMESA: new strategy to focus on structural transformation of regional economies
The final review of the 2016-2020 COMESA Medium Term Strategic Plan began yesterday with representatives of Member States making their final input into the plan. The new strategy focuses on entrenching trade facilitation, market integration, infrastructure development, industrialization, institutional and regulatory policies, capacity development and resource mobilization. The Secretary General of COMESA Mr Sindiso Ngwenya told the representatives of member States to take ownership of the strategy to enable it contribute to structural transformation of their economies. “Member States should entrench ownership through funding of regional integration programmes in order to reverse reliance of external funding for regional integration programmes.” Currently, over 80% of the COMESA programmes are funded by cooperating partners making sustainability of programmes under such funding arrangements difficult.
Kenya: Fiscal Transparency Evaluation (IMF)
The evaluation was carried out at the request of the government of Kenya by a team from the Fund’s Fiscal Affairs Department in September 2014, using information for the fiscal year 2012/13. It is important to note that, since the FTE was carried out, the government has undertaken steps in several areas to improve practices. The impact of these changes against the specific principles of the Code has not been assessed but could result in improved assessment ratings. The attached annex provides a summary of progress made.
Tanzania: Government announces big shake-up to make energy sector contracts more transparent (IPPMedia)
In what appears to be a new policy reversal, the Minister for Energy and Minerals, Prof Sospeter Muhongo, told journalists yesterday in Dar es Salaam that from now on all new government contracts involving national power generation will be negotiated and entered into in a fully transparent manner. Acknowledging that some of the power generation contracts entered by his predecessors in the ministry were ‘bad’, Muhongo said: "We want to do away with this practice where (international) companies come here, lock themselves inside an office with government officials, and we end up with these bad contracts that we currently have." [Energy sector boost as Dar launches SE4ALL initiative]
Guidelines for good governance in emerging oil and gas producers 2016 (Chatham House)
The updated Guidelines for Good Governance in Emerging Oil and Gas Producers 2016, compiled under the auspices of the New Petroleum Producers Discussion Group, review common challenges facing emerging producer countries in the phases of exploration, recent discoveries and early production. The following are the Guidelines’ broad recommendations for addressing these challenges:
MIKTA's electronic commerce workshop: downloads (WTO)
The workshop analysed trends in trade and trade policy in electronic commerce and the digital economy and highlighted the relationship between e-commerce, development, and small and medium-sized enterprises. It also addressed a broad range of regulatory topics, including data flows, privacy, cloud computing, data localization and consumer protection.
FAO urges implementation of accord to tackle illegal fishing (UN)
An international agreement (pdf) aimed at tackling illegal fishing “marks the dawn of a new era,” but rapid action is needed to ensure that its implementation is effective, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has said. The FAO Director-General acknowledged that implementation of the agreement may prove challenging for some nations – especially developing and small island States – due to resource and capacity constraints.
IGAD: Regional disease surveillance and response mechanism
At the end of the meeting, a Final Declaration (pdf) was made in which IGAD Ministries of Health committed themselves to maintain political will and mobilize resources while working in partnership with the UN agencies and other stakeholders to prevent epidemic outbreaks and if they occur, to respond jointly. The Final Declaration will enable the development of a contingency plan with specific strategies aiming at responding, and adequately controlling the current Cholera crisis, and preventing any other epidemic outbreaks in the region.
Sahel: UNSC briefing on Secretary-General’s report on the activities of UNOWAS (UN)
The Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel told the Security Council that he was setting up a regional task force on the prevention of violent extremism in the region, as he appealed for greater efforts to counter the spread of terrorism and associated lawlessness. In Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, he said, falling oil prices had undermined Government efforts to revamp the economy amid community tensions, disputes over resources and renewed militant movements in the north-east, the Biafra area and the Niger Delta, he said. With the Central Bank unpegging the national currency from the United States dollar likely to trigger price rises and socioeconomic hardship, deeper reforms were needed. Examples from Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and other places demonstrate the strength of policymaking to develop more balanced and resilient economies, he said.
Mauritius aims for top 10 ranking in Ease of Doing Business (GoM)
Implementing the trade facilitation agenda in East, Southern Africa: WCO, Finland sign agreement
China's June exports, imports both fall more than forecast (Reuters)
UNCTAD Annual Report 2015: delivering on a sustainable agenda (pdf)
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