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tralac’s Daily News Selection
The selection: Wednesday, 10 August 2016
SADC Trade Protocol: Mauritius workshop on MRE system (GoM)
A sensitisation workshop on the SADC Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation System of the SADC Trade Protocol and Non-Tariff Barriers organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, in collaboration with the Customs Department and the SADC Secretariat, opened at the Customs Department of the Mauritius Revenue Authority. For the first cycle of the self-reporting (2015), Member States were expected to submit annual reports showing progress made on implementation of the Protocol relative to status reported during the previous year as well as implementation plans for 2016. The aim of the workshop is to assist Mauritian stakeholders to identify implementation gaps and prepare the annual plan for 2016.
Central Corridor: Traders find solutions to NTBs but sticky issues persist (New Times)
Fresh information shows that transporters on the Central Corridor now save up to 78% of weighbridge stoppage times, thanks to an April directive by Tanzanian President John Magufuli for transit trucks to stop only three times instead of eight at weighbridges in the country. The announcement, by the Central Corridor Transit Transportation Facilitation Agency, comes hardly a month after members of the East African Business Council highlighted several issues, including delays in clearing goods, corruption and theft at the Port of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. According to the agency, its own analysis revealed that from June 2015 to April 2016 transporters spent an average of 222.4 minutes (3.42 hours) on weighbridges between Dar-es-Salaam and the borders between Tanzania and Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda up to DR Congo. But there is a new hurdle. [Tanzania takes over Central Corridor Chairmanship from Rwanda, Hail transport time, cost drop on Central Corridor (editorial comment, Daily News)]
Port of Mombasa: operational performance, week ending 3 August (Business Daily)
Operational performance at the terminal registered an average ship working time from first sling to the last sling of 1.96 days while ship average waiting time was 0.35 days and dwell time was 3.93 days. Average gross move per ship was 36 per hour and average gross move per crane was 16 per hour. Containers delivered by road during the week were 10,677 TEUs while those evacuated by rail were 240 TEUs only. Imports population breakdown at the port: 1,896 TEUs were for the local market (Kenya) while 4,441 TEUs were for the transit countries. As usual Uganda had the lion share of the transit throughput with 3,508 TEUs followed by Tanzania 292, South Sudan was third with 243 TEUs and DRC imported 172 TEUs. Other countries were Rwanda with 143 TEUs, Somalia 46 TEUs, Ethiopia had 23 TEUs and last was Burundi with 14 TEUs.
Zimbabwe: Import restrictions fuel rampant smuggling in Beitbridge (The Chronicle)
Smuggling of commodities into Zimbabwe has escalated following the implementation of Statutory Instrument (SI) 64 of 2016 with the Government losing millions of dollars every week in unpaid customs duty. The instrument restricts the importation of some goods produced locally. But rampant smuggling activities are taking place at illegal crossing points dotted along the Limpopo River, The Chronicle can reveal. At Nottingham Estate, about 40km west of the border town, the news crew observed a one tonne truck being loaded with smuggled goods shortly after 8PM. The goods, which were concealed under a consignment of oranges, included alcoholic beverages and boxes of cooking oil. The smugglers are taking advantage of the dry Limpopo riverbed to cross the border using 4x4 vehicles. [Business slumps at Beitbridge as border post is deserted]
EALA to probe Burundi's ban on cross-border trade (New Times)
The East African Legislative Assembly plans to launch an independent investigation into Burundi’s recent decision to ban Rwanda’s products entering its market. The findings will inform the assembly and the Heads of State in the region on possible remedies. This was announced yesterday, by Daniel Kidega, the EALA Speaker after a meeting with Senate president Bernard Makuza. The two also discussed the EAC funding, where countries are urged to develop the necessary funding mechanisms for projects to avoid relying on donors.
COMESA: helping Madagascar, member states combat money laundering
The initiative is being implemented by COMESA under the Maritime Security regional programme which is financed through the European Development Fund (EDF 11). The MASE programme aims at fighting against money laundering and financial crimes in the region. On Monday, the COMESA Secretariat conducted a sensitization workshop for Anti Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) in Madagascar. Madagascar has so far been the highest beneficiary of the programme which includes support to join the Eastern and Southern Anti-Money Laundering Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) and alignment of its laws.
Regional leaders to meet on money laundering (The Chronicle)
The Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) and the SADC Council of Ministers will meet this month for their bi-annual task force meeting. “The 32nd task force meeting of the senior officials will be held from 28 August to 1 September in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe,” organisers said. “The task force meeting will be followed by the council of ministers’ meeting on 2 September and the public/private sector dialogue, will take place from 2-3 September.”
Nigeria: Olusegun Awolowo worried about neglect of ECOWAS free trade (The Guardian)
Executive Director, Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Olusegun Awolowo, has urged Nigerian exporters to maximise the economic potentials inherent in ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme, to enhance economic growth in the country. The export promotion council boss, who spoke recently at capacity building workshop for exporters in Kano, revealed that survey conducted by the council on progress in Nigeria on some multilateral and bilateral trade agreements entered with some countries indicated poor impact, largely due to what he considered as lack of awareness of most of the pacts. On the contrary, President of the Trans Sahara Trade Development Association, Muntaka Isa, insisted that low participation of businessmen particularly in the Northern part of the country was not unconnected to cumbersome procedure and heavy taxes and duties imposed by Nigerian Customs services.
Mauritius hosts regional workshop on communicating scientific information to policy makers (GoM)
A five-day regional training workshop on 'Communicating Scientific Information to Policy Makers' opened yesterday. The objective is to improve decision making and the development of policies based on the scientific data, products and bulletins that are generated under the Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa-Indian Ocean Commission project. Organised by the Mauritius Oceanography Institute, the workshop is being attended by around 30 participants, namely National Focal Point from Indian Ocean Commission member states and Eastern African countries as well as the technical focal points from the National Beneficiary Institutions. The MESA project is a contractual project between the MOI and the African Union Commission with funding and endorsement from the European Union.
Fighting deforestation in the Miombo woodlands of Southern Africa (World Bank Blogs)
The 2016 Miombo Network workshop, hosted by Mozambique’s University Eduardo Mondlane from 27-29 July, drew over 90 participants from eight African countries - South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, and Kenya - as well as from the US, UK, Portugal, Finland, and Brazil. The participants represented a diverse cross-section of governments at the national and subnational level, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, and academia.
SADC, Germany sign technical and financial cooperation agreement
IGAD training workshop on international water law
AU's Fridays of the Commission workshop, 19 August: Lessons from the response to El Nino Eastern Africa and Southern Africa
The evolving dynamics of Africa's regional economies: Ajen Sita (EY Africa) interviewed (Forbes)
Afreximbank’s plan for Kenya regional office hit by tax war (Business Daily)
Brexit lessons for EAC about Tanzania (Business Daily)
How SA living standards have changed: analysis of selected living standards indicators (Standard Bank)
GDP per capita and disposable income per capita (national level, real terms): We use national GDP per capita over the past 15 years and divide it into 3 time periods: 2000-2005; 2006-2010 and 2011-2015. We show that living standards for South Africans improved the most during the period 2000-2005, with GDP per capita growth of 10%. The period 2011-2015 recorded the lowest per capita growth at just 2%. Similarly, analysis of disposable income per capita shows that average income for South Africans grew the slowest in the period 2011-2015, at 3%, versus 12% in 2000-2006 and 5% in 2006-2010. [The analysts: Kim Silberman, Siphamandla Mkhwanazi, Zaakirah Ismail]
Financing Africa’s infrastructure deficit: from development banking to long-term investing (Brookings)
In this paper, we first take stock of recent initiatives [including PIDA] to scale up infrastructure in Africa through the construction of new (greenfield) investment. While progress has been made on the origination front, especially for regional infrastructure investment, the financing has yet to materialize. The paper then critically reviews the literature on informed versus arm’s length debt and draws lessons for infrastructure financing. Considering the differences in investors’ preferences that Africa faces, the paper argues that Africa’s success to fill its greenfield infrastructure gap hinges upon a delicate balancing act between development banking and long-term institutional investing. [The analysts: Rabah Arezki, Amadou Sy]
Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance 2015 Joint Report (AfDB)
Among the regions, non-European Union Europe and Central Asia received the largest share of total funding at 20%; with South Asia receiving 19%; Latin America and the Caribbean 15%; East Asia and the Pacific 14%; the EU 13%; Sub-Saharan Africa 9%; and the Middle East and North Africa 9%. Multi-regional commitments made up the other 2% of the total. On a sectoral basis, the largest recipient of adaptation funding was for water and wastewater systems (27%), followed by energy, transport and related infrastructure (24%), and crop and food production (18%). Renewable energy received the bulk of mitigation finance (30%), lower-carbon transport received 26%, and energy efficiency activities 14%.
14 airlines close shop in Nigeria amid forex hike (The Guardian)
No fewer than 14 airlines have withdrawn their services from the country due to low patronage on account of the economic recession. The airlines, including Iberia, United Airlines and Air Gambia, are among the 50 that operated the Nigerian routes some months ago. Besides, foreign airlines operating in the country are estimated to have lost about N64 billion in the wake of the new foreign exchange policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
T20 policy recommendations to the G20 (China Daily)
About 500 think tank experts, politicians and representatives of international organizations from 25 countries worldwide met in Beijing for the Think 20 (T20) Summit that ran from July 29 to 30 to contribute their wisdom to the G20 Hangzhou Summit on building new global relationships. Extract: The T20 should strengthen its own capacity building. Some experts suggest that the T20 should initiate a more institutionalized think tank alliance to provide more systematic and issue-oriented intellectual support for the G20. Others suggest that the G20 should even establish a G20 Institute funded by the G20 members and composed of relevant experts of the G20 members.
US disappointed with Chinese export subsidies says EXIM chairman (Reuters)
A senior US trade official on Tuesday complained that China's rising export subsidies were damaging American businesses and criticised the US political system for failing to adapt to competition from China. US Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg told reporters in Beijing that China gave its exporters 10 times more financing than the US did in 2015, predicting the issue would be on the agenda at the G20 summit in Hangzhou next month. In 2015, US EXIM approved $12.4bn in export financing. During his trip to Beijing, Hochberg met with the Export-Import Bank of China, which he said extended $30bn last year and he said another agency benefitting exporters, Sinosure, gave $471bn last year to aid Chinese business and investment overseas. He said he was disappointed China has yet to sign up to a global framework regulating export subsidies.
US-China trade surprise (AEI)
China: Disappointing July imports suggest cooling domestic demand (Reuters)
India’s new stance at RCEP may benefit China (LiveMint)
Ghana: Making a case for the ratification and implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTC Accra)
China mulls venture into Rwanda's banking sector (New Times)
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