Featured tweet, @HEQuarteyKwesi (AUC Deputy Chairperson): In Africa, levies on imports are being used by ECOWAS, ECCAS & CEMAC and have proven reasonably effective. The 0.2% levy will serve Africa.

Starting today, in Berkeley: The challenges and opportunities of transforming African agriculture. Download the presentations from the WB’s Annual Conference on Africa.

Conclusions of the Retreat of the AU Peace and Security Council on the implementation of the conclusions of successive PSC retreats and PSC decisions from 2007 to 2016 (3-5 May, Kigali)

Extensive summary of yesterday’s ECOSOC special meeting: Innovations for infrastructure development and promoting sustainable industrialization

Measuring and monitoring intra-African trade: IFPRI and partners to develop expert technical network (IFPRI)

With the cooperation of the AU and African Regional Economic Communities, and through funding by USAID, IFPRI has been helping to establish a technical network of experts to unify efforts to measure and monitor inter- and intra-regional agricultural trade within Africa. As part of this project, A recent discussion paper, Existing data to measure African trade (pdf), by Cristina Mitaritonna of CEPII, the French research center for international economics, and Fousseini Traoré of IFPRI reviews efforts launched in the last 10 years to improve trade data in Africa. The study found that data collection efforts are fragmented and have generally lacked the necessary funding to be expanded or even established permanently. So even as the potential magnitude of under-reporting has come into focus, a unified approach to improving trade data has yet to emerge.

The overarching goals of the IFPRI project are to improve the measurement of intra-regional trade and to identify the factors that impede such trade. The first goal includes two key objectives: Improving the measurement of informal trade by expanding regional and product coverage; and formalizing best practices while developing methods to use the informal trade data to reconcile and augment formal data. To meet the second goal, the project aims to catalogue recent efforts to measure trade barriers, develop a series of technically robust indicators for trade performance and its impact on food security, and identify and track the determinants of African trade. Here are some specific steps needed to build this technical network:

AfDB’s Annual Meetings: a set of Working Papers prepared by India’s Exim Bank:

Profiled paper: Integrate Africa: a multidimensional perspective (WP 65). A resurgent Africa and a rising India could create a new paradigm for South-South Cooperation. While trade and investment have lately become the catchphrase in India’s multi-faceted relationship with Africa, an ambitious and all-encompassing action plan is necessary to further strengthen the cooperation between the two landmasses, of which engendering regional integration would form a key component. Special facilities can also be considered by the Government of India and the AfDB specifically for co-financing the regional infrastructure projects in Africa. Concessional loans can be provided by the GOI under this proposed facility. Some National Governments have set up such facilities in collaboration with multilateral financing institutions, for financing projects in Africa. [Table of contents: Introduction; Regional infrastructure development in Africa; Production and trade integration; Financial integration; Free movement of people; India’s role in integrating Africa]

Other working papers in the Exim Bank series are: (i) Manufacturing in Africa: a roadmap for sustainable growth; (ii) Power sector in Africa: prospect and potential; (iii) Feed Africa: achieving progress through partnership; (iv) Water, sanitation and healthcare in Africa: enhancing facility, enabling growth. [How to access the papers: click on the Working Papers tab, register to download.

Exploring trade and investment patterns of ASEAN in Africa: Are they limited by the bigger Asian powers? (ICS)

Finally, the increasing engagement of ASEAN nations provides more options for African agency, whose reliance on any one actor traditional or non-traditional can be decreased with more players entering the mix. Furthermore, it points to the fact that each country – historical and geopolitical reality (geographical or economic size) notwithstanding – brings to the relationship aspects that are truly unique. In other words, although they may be limited by the bigger Asian powers on several fronts, countries like Singapore and Malaysia are also quickly becoming a force that have a pivotal role to play in the continent’s growth story with the capacity also to contest dominance in any shape or form. What is even more promising, however, is that African markets are growing at a time when ASEAN countries are beginning to internationalize and expand. The timing could not be more conducive for building long-term, truly robust partnerships. [The analyst: Veda Vaidyanathan], [Vietnam seminar reviews Asia-Africa ties since Bandung Conference]

EAC Common Market Protocol Updates:

(i) Kenya: The update featured two policy briefs: (i) Towards the comprehensive review of the EAC Common External Tariff; (ii) Enhancing Kenya’s trade in services. Here are a few of the key recommendations for creating a better trading environment between Kenya and the EAC: (i) Timely resolution of non-tariff barriers that have a high impact on Kenya’s trade performance in the EAC; (ii) Support implementation of EAC export development and promotion strategies; (iii) Common External Tariff should take into account domestic production value chains that are aligned to Kenya’s industrial and agricultural policies.

(ii) Tanzania: The report highlights key areas of policy reform that Tanzania is exploring towards easier movement of goods, services and capital in the East African region. These reforms will spur inter-regional trade, which will in-turn lead to regional integration of the five EAC Partner States. This publication is a useful resource in tracking Tanzania’s progress in implementing the EAC Common Market Protocol.

Resolving the unresolved non-tariff barriers in the East African Community: outputs from an ODI project

(i) Would more trade facilitation lead to lower transport costs in the East African Community?. This briefing, based on interviews with East African private sector organisations and other relevant stakeholders, examines how and why increased trade facilitation has reduced transport costs, and argues that efforts to date have impacted the logistics chain unevenly, leaving room for more to be done to speed up regional trading and produce benefits for consumers. [The analysts: Andreas Eberhard-Ruiz, Linda Calabrese]

(ii) The costs of logistical and transport barriers to trade in East Africa. This fifth and final briefing of a project on NTBs in the EAC examines the cost of transport and logistical barriers to regional trade, calculating that they cost East African economies between 1.7% and 2.8% of gross domestic product every year. It then offers recommendations for policy-makers, suggesting that further trade liberalisation and improvements to infrastructure will reduce costs, in turn benefitting consumers by lowering prices. [The analysts: Michael Gasiorek, Maximiliano Mendez-Parra, Dirk Willenbockel

An assessment of Kenya’s international competitiveness (tralac)

This paper complements others in the sequence of a Kenyan tralac training week programme (24-28 April) by examining competitiveness ‘from the ground up’, as distinct from examining export competitiveness from the basis of the actual export performance. In order to do this, the authors draw heavily from the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report of 2016-2017. They find that although Kenya does not rank highly on a global scale, it does rank highly on an African scale and its ranking in several factors is improving in a meaningful way. [The analysts: Kenneth Murimi, Samuel Matonda, Ron Sandrey]

Lagos, Gauteng Province have the capacity to drive economic growth in Africa ― Ambode (Nigerian Tribune)

Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, said on Wednesday that the state and the Province of Gauteng possess the capacity to drive the desired industrial and economic growth in the African continent. Governor Ambode said this while addressing Government House correspondents shortly after a meeting with the Premier of the Province of Gauteng, Mr David Makhura on a possible partnership on advancing trade and industrialization at the Lagos House in Ikeja, describing both city-states as the economic powerhouse of both Nigeria and South Africa. Governor Ambode, who disclosed plans to enter into a bi-lateral relationship with the Province of Gauteng, aimed at boosting the economic capacities of not just Nigeria and South Africa, but the continent of Africa, said it would be a win-win situation that would grow the GDP that would be beneficial to the citizen of both countries. [Ghana-South Africa Business-to-Business Forum: update]

Nigeria: With N49tn import bill, FG looks inwards for goods and services (ThisDay)

The federal government, yesterday, said Nigeria had spent a whopping N49 trillion on imports in 17 years, adding that it has resolved to chart a new course for the country by saving N3.6 trillion in five years through the take off of a new innovation plan targeted at Nigeria’s industrialisation. Briefing journalists at the end of the meeting, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonaya Onu, said FEC approved a memorandum to alter the status quo and re-direct the country’s priority towards the production and consumption of locally made goods and services. “Before the study was done, there were extensive consultations with research institutes, countries and universities, businesses, industries, governments at all levels, to determine our level of dependence on outside products and to find a way we can stop this. We looked at what other countries such as Canada, China, India, Japan and South Korea did.” [Quartz: The key to diversifying Nigeria’s economy could lie in fixing its ports]

West African International Arbitration Conference: conference summary (AfDB)

This two-day event, the first of its kind, was organized by International Arbitration Africa, with the support of the AfDB Group and the African Legal Support Facility. Each coming year, I-ARB will organize the WAIAC in a different country in West Africa, facilitating a comprehensive, region-wide discussion on issues including investment arbitration and Bilateral Investment Treaties negotiations. [Related, forthcoming arbitration conferences: The future of arbitration in Africa (5 June, Nairobi), Advances in international arbitration in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa (8 June, Johannesburg)]

Does Africa have enough capacity to produce evidence maps and evidence syntheses? (Africa Evidence Network)

In total, 176 participants from 26 countries responded to the survey. Out of these, 90% were African-based participants across 18 countries. The majority of the respondents were from South Africa; evidence synthesis capacity, however, extends across Africa. About half (87/176) of the respondents reported having received training and mentoring in evidence maps and evidence syntheses that was supported by 100 different organisations; the bulk of these organisations being African institutions.

Today’s Quick Links: UN official, Adeyinka Adeyemi, asks developed countries to return Africa’s stolen assets without conditions Tanzania: Govt finalising guidelines on investment land Tanzania: March revenue collection hits 95% of target Rwanda: Tea export revenue increases to Rwf19.4bn in first quarter Kenya’s leather sector: a skill gap assessment USAID/KEA: East Africa Regional Development Cooperation Strategy 2016 – 2021 World Bank to help Senegal negotiate complex oil and gas projects How will Brexit impact world wine markets?