News
tralac’s Daily News selection: 18 September 2015
The selection: Friday, 18 September
DG Azevêdo: 'A package of issues for Nairobi may be within reach' (WTO)
“The view emerging from many of the meetings in which I have participated is that a set of deliverables is within reach which has the potential to make the ministerial a success and to help us move our work forward. And, crucially, there is the common view that those deliverables should have development and LDC issues at their heart. “I am confident that all members want to seize the opportunity that Nairobi represents. We all want to make it a meaningful Ministerial Conference which delivers substantive support for growth and development. So members must now decide on shape and scope of the outcome that they want to achieve in Nairobi. Time is short.”
India’s farm subsidy programme may face fresh challenge at WTO (LiveMint)
Namibia: New Procurement Bill a game changer for local manufacturers (New Era)
The revised Procurement Bill tabled in parliament by Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein on Tuesday could be the lifeline local manufacturers have been waiting for. Although the Bill still needs to be debated by lawmakers before it is sent to the National Council, this crucial piece of legislation is viewed as a game changer by the domestic manufacturing industry, because it gives preference to local products, previously disadvantaged women and youth, SMEs and Namibian enterprises in general. “My main competitors are the South Africans and the Chinese. We need to change the mindset of local companies and consumers to support locally manufactured products, because we can guarantee the same quality as foreign suppliers,” said David Namalenga, Managing Director of Dinapama Manufacturing and Supplies, which manufactures garments.
Zimbabwe’s surtax: its incidence and implementation (tralac)
The above shows that South Africa is the country which is greatly affected by Zimbabwe’s surtax regime. Other countries have an option to use either the COMESA FTA or bilateral agreements they may have with Zimbabwe. Imports entering Zimbabwe under the SADC FTA and the bilateral agreement with South Africa attract surtax. However, surtax also applies to imports from countries outside the region such as China and Japan, among others. [The author: Elisha Tshuma]
Based on countries’ experiences with pre-shipment inspections required for Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, Togo, Egypt and Ivory Coast these inspections add between 3 to 7 days to the export process. The list of goods subject to inspections (and quality testing if deemed necessary) is extensive. It includes approximately 137 products at the HS4 level in 41 HS Chapters, including food and agricultural products, building materials, wood and wood products, clothing and textiles and transport equipment. [The author: Willemien Viljoen]
What Kenya should do to shield local manufacturers (Business Daily)
Nigeria’s N630bn annual food import bill worries Emefiele (ThisDay)
The Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, has reiterated his concern over the country’s position as a net importer of agricultural produce with import above N630 billion. The country imports food products such as wheat, rice, flour, fish, tomato paste, textile and sugar in large quantities annually. Emefiele, stated this in a keynote address presented at a training workshop on innovative agricultural insurance products held in Lagos Thursday. The forum was to activate the insurance pillar of the Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending.
Mozambique: Proposed export surcharge on pigeon peas (SPEED Program)
The Government is proposing a 20% duty (ad valorem) on the export of pigeon peas for a period of five years. The arguments put forward by the Government in its proposal are: (i) the need to protect an emerging/infant pigeon pea processing industry, and (ii) the opportunity to generate additional government revenue, not only through the collection of the export duty but also by reducing and/or eliminating the potential occurrence of under-invoicing pigeon pea exports. In response to requests received to comment on the proposed legislation SPEED prepared three Notes, which are available in Portuguese and English.
SADC Veterinary Committee to upgrade livestock labs (The Herald)
The SADC Veterinary Laboratory Diagnostic Sub-Committee is working on measures aimed at upgrading livestock laboratories to meet international standards as it seeks to stimulate the trade of livestock products in regional and global markets, an official has said. SADC Veterinary Laboratory Diagnostic Sub-Committee chairman Dr Pious Makaya said trade of livestock products has declined due to widespread diseases among African countries. Dr Makaya was speaking during the closing of the annual meeting of SADC Committee for Livestock Health in Harare yesterday.
CZI to set up roadmap to revive Zimbabwe's farming sector (The Herald)
East African Business Council and Innovation Norway sign MOU (EAC)
Under the MoU, which will be effective for a period of five years, EABC and Innovation Norway agreed to work together on various agreed upon priority areas including trade facilitation; joint activities that are beneficial to both institutions including conferences, trade missions (both international and regional), and; business to business engagement both in EAC and Norway and the Nordic countries. Earlier, the Norwegian Minister for Trade and Industry, Ms Monica Maeland, and the EAC Secretary General, Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera, held bilateral talks on possible areas of cooperation between Norway and the EAC. The talks focused on the upcoming negotiations between the European Free Trade Area and the EAC.
COMESA's Logistics Forum updates: Regional Dialogue on Transport Industry (COMESA), Stationary trucks on highways at night to be a thing of the past (Daily Nation), High transport costs curtail regional trade (The Standard)
Express goods train services between Zambia and Mozambique (Coast Week)
The first express goods train from Zambia to the central Mozambican Port of Beira, through Zimbabwe, will start running by the end of this month, Zambia’s investment agency has said. Candido Jone, executive director of the central division of the Mozambican Ports and Rail Company said the first express train will be formed of 20 platforms, each holding 12 containers which will take two days to move the cargo from Zambia to the Mozambican port, covering a distance of over 1, 000 kilometers.
Djibouti to extend sea-air cargo services to Nigeria (ThisDay)
"Djibouti is seizing this opportunity to develop its own aviation-linked economy. When it comes to sea port services we have been very successful in putting Djibouti on the world map and it is evident to all that we are making rapid advances in this sector by building four brand new ports and port related infrastructure such as our planned ship repair yards. We are building one of the biggest free trade zone spanning 4350 hectares”, he said.
AVIC reveals progress in Africa (China Daily)
China is making good progress in the creation of a network of aviation training and maintenance facilities in Africa, being built in an effort to boost potential sales of the China-made aircraft, and help improve the continent's air transport sector. Speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing Aviation Expo China 2015 in Beijing, Zhang Guangjian, general manager of AVIC International Aero-Development Corp, told China Daily he hoped all the planned facilities would be fully operational by 2020. The network is likely to comprise an aviation training centre, two regional marketing offices, two maintenance and support centers and three spare-parts warehouses, he said.
Africa’s oversold growth story has investors confronting losses (Gulf Times)
To Marlon Chigwende, sub-Saharan Africa managing director for Carlyle, the world’s second-largest private-equity firm, the message is simple: Africa is not a country. “There are individual forces at work within each of the 55 countries that make up Africa,” he said. “There will continue to be investment opportunities."
Mark Mobius, the Franklin Templeton Investments money manager who’s been investing in emerging markets for more than four decades, remains optimistic. “The growth scenario is still excellent,” he said in an e-mailed response to questions. “We do not want to scale back our investments. The problems are here to stay but they pale beside the opportunities.”
Irish exporters should look to sub-Sahara Africa (Irish Times)
Rob Roughan, head of global corporates at Barclays Bank Ireland, said emerging markets in Africa should not be overlooked. “Major African economies such as South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria have been the primary focus of Irish companies to date, but with increased competition, businesses need to diversify their trade and investment markets to broaden their horizons and compete more effectively. “By 2020 the five ‘sleeping giant’ economies of Ethiopia, DR Congo, Mozambique, Ghana and Tanzania that we have identified in our index will represent a population of 325 million people, comparable with the US, and experiencing rates of economic growth that were once the preserve of India and China. Household spending for these countries is set to nearly double, so companies that establish themselves in these markets now will be positioned to reap the awards of rapid growth by 2020.”
Trade Winds - Africa: Deepening our commercial engagement with Africa (The World Post)
Trade Winds - Africa will help ensure that our partnerships continue to deepen and expand. It is the largest-ever US government-sponsored trade mission to Africa, involving approximately 108 U.S. companies. In addition to a business development forum and trade mission in South Africa, Trade Winds will stop in seven other sub-Saharan African countries - Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Tanzania. The forum participants will include local and American market experts, Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, and government decision-makers. [Stefan M. Selig serves as President Obama’s Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade]
Indian investment in Africa: January 2003 to July 2015 (Fahamu)
The report includes estimated values on capital investment and the number of jobs created in cases where information was not available at project announcement. Retail and inter-state projects are excluded from this report. Between January 2003 and July 2015 a total of 383 FDI projects were recorded. These projects represent a total capital investment of USD 55.07bn, which is an average investment of USD 143.80m per project. During the period, a total of 100,567 jobs were created. [Catalysing India’s trade and investment: the Exim Bank]
Protecting Scotch the wrong way in Africa (Cato Institute)
Why should this matter to anyone outside of Scotland and West Africa? Because it is part of a very troubling movement within international economic policy. The European Union is using free trade agreements to pressure countries to adopt this excessive form of GI protection and to protect a list of specific GIs even if they are generic terms in that country. These include wine names like champagne, port, and sherry as well as numerous generic cheese names like parmesan, asiago, feta, and gorgonzola. As the United States negotiates the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the EU, it’s important for American policymakers to understand that Europe’s approach to GIs is protectionist and incompatible with the goal of free trade in a globalized economy. This is true even if you think “Scotch” can only be made in Scotland.
Initiatives launched to drive R&D in Africa (SciDev)
Zambia grants COMESA 10 acres for new headquarters (COMESA)
Econet to launch SA-Zimbabwe cross border remittance facility (The Herald)
Study on illicit funds flows to be ready next year: BoT (The Citizen)
Akinwumi A. Adesina: 'New Deal On Energy for Africa' speech (AfDB)
Western Cape puts pressure on government to suspend new visa rules (Business Day)
IFC begins re-engagement with the Central African Republic’s private sector (IFC)
This week in the news
Catch up on tralac’s daily news selections for the past week:
The selection: Thursday, 17 September 2015
The selection: Wednesday, 16 September 2015
The selection: Tuesday, 15 September 2015
The selection: Monday, 14 September 2015
SUBSCRIBE
To receive the link to tralac’s Daily News Selection via email, click here to subscribe.
This post has been sourced on behalf of tralac and disseminated to enhance trade policy knowledge and debate. It is distributed to over 300 recipients across Africa and internationally, serving in the AU, RECS, national government trade departments and research and development agencies. Your feedback is most welcome. Any suggestions that our recipients might have of items for inclusion are most welcome. Richard Humphries (Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Twitter: @richardhumphri1)
