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tralac’s Daily News Selection
The selection: Monday, 7 November 2016
For twitter updates from discussions at today’s Kenya-Botswana Business Forum: @Trade_Kenya, @AdanMohamedCS, @Kiptoock, @IndustryKE, @kncci
In Lusaka, tomorrow: the Southern African launch of the AfDB’s Feed Africa strategy
WTO issues new editions of Trade Profiles, World Tariff Profiles
The revamped Trade Profiles provides a series of key indicators on trade in goods and services for 195 economies. For each economy, the data is presented in a handy two-page format, providing a concise overview of global trade. The profiles begin with a snapshot of the importance of trade for each economy — indicating its world ranking for trade in both goods and commercial services. World Tariff Profiles, produced in cooperation with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the International Trade Centre, has been expanded to provide information on tariffs and non-tariff measures imposed by over 170 economies. A new section covers the use of non-tariff measures, which are becoming increasingly important in international trade. The special topic for this edition is the 2017 version of the Harmonized System for classifying goods, which will enter into force on 1 January 2017. A section on data sources and frequently asked questions forms the final part of the publication.
SA’s trade minister, Rob Davies, interviewed by Zimbabwe Sunday Mail business reporter Africa Moyo: On the TFTA
But as Africa, colonialism divided us into 54 different countries. We believe as South Africa, we cannot simply industrialise off the South African economy and consumption, we need to have a regional market that even reaches beyond our existing regional communities. We should end up in the continent. The Tripartite (Free Trade Area) is very important. I think after a long debate, and we are part of the debate, the consensus that we have is that rather than focus on trying to deepen integration within our existing communities – in other words, we move Sadc into our customs union, our monetary union, something like that – the focus of our attention now ought to be on broadening integration across our regional communities. The tripartite is the first crack at that. But when we do that, we need to do that with a developmental paradigm.
We have already agreed on the legal text that was adopted about a year ago in Sharm El Sheik in Egypt. They are in the process of negotiating the trade in goods arrangements. We are not trying to open the arrangements that are already in existence. The focus is on negotiating with those in the big bloc who don’t have any preferential arrangements between themselves. In our case, as I said, we have to negotiate as Sacu. Our biggest negotiations in the bloc are with the EAC and with Egypt. There are a few others – Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan – outstanding. We are very close to concluding those schedules and there is another round of negotiations in December. We will see if we conclude; if not, it won’t be long into the New Year before we conclude.
Trade integration in West Africa Monetary Zone: update (Front Page Africa)
The West African Monetary Institute Director General Abwaku Englama said WAMI identified the need to assess progress on trade integration in the region. “I have been informed that the preliminary results of the newly constructed index show that the WAMZ trade integration index score stood at 47.1 in 2015, from 40.8 in 2014,” Englama said. Englama revealed that WAMI is expected to carry out a survey on informal cross border trade in the region. [Liberia hosts 8th WAMZ Trade Ministers’ Conference]
West and Central Africa’s digital economy: new initiative to spur growth in the sector (World Bank)
The World Bank Group and CTIC Dakar have launched the Jambar Tech Lab, a business acceleration program to help West and Central African tech start-ups commercialize and scale innovative digital products. First of its kind in the region, the program will connect 40 local high-growth startups with the knowledge, capital, and access to markets they need to grow. The program is part of a new regional effort to improve competitiveness, attract investment, and create jobs through digital technologies.
East African pharma companies missing out on fast-growing $5bn opportunity (UNCTAD)
The $5bn East African pharmaceutical market is expected to grow by more than 12% per year for the next five years, as lifestyle changes in the region lead to higher rates of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes. Such high growth offers significant opportunity, but so far the region’s 65 manufacturers have only been able to satisfy about 30% of market demand, leaving the other 70% to be captured by imports. "The biggest challenge facing local producers is the lack of capital they need to invest in improving product quality," says Christoph Spennemann, in charge of UNCTAD’s programme on intellectual property rights and development. Boosting this production requires foreign investors, Mr Spennemann says, but many investors want to see further harmonization of national drug regulations in the region, which includes Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. "It’s all about economies of scale," he says. "Investors are more interested in a regional market of 140 million people than individual countries." [Note: the conference resolutions can be downloaded from the link, above] [Zimbabwe: Govt works on $40m facility for drug firms]
Zimbabwe: Minister to present 2017 national budget next month (The Chronicle)
Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa is expected to present the 2017 national budget early next month. The ministry’s permanent secretary Mr Willard Manungo said the process of interrogating the submissions from different stakeholders would be complete soon. Ministers and parliamentarians concluded a three-day pre-budget consultation meeting in Bulawayo at the weekend. “At the moment we are interrogating the submissions from various Government departments and ministries. We are looking forward to have the budget presented either at the end of the month or early December,” he said.
South Africa’s transition from TDCA to EPA: agricultural market access updates, downloads (tralac)
EU’s EPA strategy detrimental to Africa – ECOWAS farmers (Vanguard)
Zombie banks stalk Africa with mergers one way to limit risk (Bloomberg)
Regulators may have no choice but to force lenders to consolidate or close. A third of Nigeria’s 21 banks may be under-capitalized. Much smaller Uganda has 25 banks and last month suffered one collapse. Kenya has had three failures since August last year and with 40 lenders, boasts almost one bank per million people. Angola’s 30 or so banks may need to boost reserves by $4 billion, while a Mozambican lender was rescued by the central bank in September. Ghana is telling banks to combine and raise funds through the stock market. “The consequences of inaction will be disastrous,” said Robert Besseling, a Johannesburg-based executive director at business-risk consultancy Exx Africa. “Uncontrolled bank failures pose significant contagion risks to other banks, state-owned enterprises and private businesses.”
Fear of job losses after rise in import duty at Mombasa port (Daily Nation)
A duty increase on imported goods has caused a clearance clog at the Port of Mombasa, with more than 1,000 containers piling up uncollected. This is after the Kenya Revenue Authority increased tariffs three months ago. There are fears of job losses as many clearing and forwarding agents say they can no longer afford to release goods at the port, with the delays having a cost impact on importers through demurrage charges, hence lowered income.
Maritime trade and global piracy: latest International Maritime Bureau report
Kidnapping and hostage-taking persists off the coasts of West Africa and South East Asia, despite a 20-year low in piracy on the world’s seas, according to new figures from the International Chamber of Commerce International Maritime Bureau. IMB’s latest global piracy report shows that pirates armed with guns or knives took 110 seafarers hostage in the first nine months of 2016, and kidnapped 49 crew for ransom. Nigeria, a growing hotspot for violent piracy and armed robbery, accounts for 26% of all captures, followed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Guinea and Ivory Coast. But with just 42 attacks worldwide this quarter, maritime piracy is at its lowest since 1996. As for Somalia, zero incidents were recorded this quarter and just one attempted attack was recorded in the Gulf of Aden in the first nine months of 2016. But the situation ashore in Somalia, from where the pirate vessels set off, remains fragile.
India, Japan plan to develop ‘Pacific, Indian Ocean’ corridor (Economic Times)
India and Japan hope to put in a place a network connecting the Pacific to the Indian Ocean as they eye joint development of infrastructure and capacity building projects in this vast region, with a special focus on Africa, in the backdrop of China’s growing ambitions across Asia and Africa. The mechanism aimed at contributing to Asian stability connecting two oceans is expected to be put in place when PM Narendra Modi visits Tokyo for the annual summit with PM Shinzo Abe from November 10-12. A key aim of this mechanism is also to utilise India’s political network in Africa and Japanese funds to finance a variety of projects across the continent, people familiar with the development said.
Climate investment opportunities in emerging markets: an IFC analysis
A new IFC report shows that the historic global agreement on climate change adopted in Paris last year helped open up nearly $23 trillion in opportunities for climate-smart investments in emerging markets between now and 2030. IFC’s study, based on the national climate-change commitments and underlying policies of 21 emerging-market economies, representing 48% of global emissions, identifies sectors in each region where the potential for investment is greatest. This includes Sub-Saharan Africa, which represents a $783m opportunity — particularly for clean energy in Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.
UN climate conference to continue momentum after Paris Agreement comes into force (UN)
In early October, the accord cleared the final threshold of 55 countries representing 55% of global emissions required for the accord to come into effect within one month. Its entry into force was extremely swift, particularly for an agreement that required a large number of ratifications and the two specific thresholds.
SA’s IDC signs $20m loan facility with Development Bank of Zambia to support small businesses (Lusaka Times)
Brazilian Senate approves $90.7m debt relief to Zambia (Lusaka Times)
Kenyan companies lead merger and acquisition deals in COMESA region (Business Daily)
What’s happening to the EAC integration dream? (New Times)
Zimbabwe: Govt pushes for expedition of National Export Strategy (The Herald)
Kenya: Govt to introduce toll stations on five major roads (Business Daily)
Tanzania: BOT’s July monthly economic review (pdf)
Abidjan-Lagos Corridor: ECOWAS validates Advisory Services Inception Report
IMF’s Fifteenth General Review of Quotas: report of the Executive Board to the Board of Governors
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