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tralac’s Daily News selection
The selection: Wednesday, 17 February 2016
South Africa’s trade at a glance - update of recent developments (tralac infographics): Big picture, Intra-SACU trade, SACU trade with Africa, Emerging markets - BRICs, Traditional trading partners - EU, US
US and AGOA countries: full year trade data for 2015 is published (AGOA.info)
Aid-for-trade work programme 2016-17: 'Promoting connectivity' (Committee on Trade and Development, WTO)
Follow-up work on trade costs will be undertaken during the Work Programme period to further elaborate on the insights collected by past work programmes. One action here will be to hold a CTD workshop to discuss establishing a "trade costs baseline" using existing indices, against which to track and report on future progress. The workshop will further examine the design and implementation of policies to reduce trade costs, including in the context of promoting regional value chains, regional economic integration and implementation of relevant Programmes of Action.
A CTD workshop on Aid for Trade and Services had highlighted the importance of services for economic development – and the relative neglect of services in the research on trade and economic development. This research gap is particularly marked in the area of trade costs as they relate to services' trade and e-commerce. This omission is conspicuous when considered in the context of the various technical assistance initiatives announced by WTO Members to improve LDC services' export capacity. Research in the area of services' trade costs is timely for the further programming of support both to LDCs and for Aid-for-Trade support for services' sector trade development more generally given the importance of services (including of small and vulnerable economies) for economic development. [Download]
African Transformation Forum (14-15 March, Kigali)
The first objective of the ATF is to facilitate knowledge sharing and peer learning across global and African luminaries from the public and private sectors. These participants will contribute their rich insights, and uncover challenges and solutions for galvanizing economic transformation in Africa. The discussions will fall into two categories: i) the coordinated development and implementation of national development plans; and ii) catalyzing transformation within critical sectors, notably: extractives; light manufacturing; agriculture; skills development; entrepreneurship; financial inclusion; infrastructure; and regional integration. The second objective of the ATF is to launch the Coalition for Transformation in Africa – a new leadership network organized in chapters, each addressing a specific thematic area.
West Africa-EU prepare for final signatures towards implementation of the EPA (ECOWAS)
To this end, the Regional Preparatory Task Force (RPTF) and the Joint implementation preparatory meetings held on the 5th and then 7th-9th February respectively in Brussels to give the desired impetus to the implementation of the EPA. During the RPTF meeting, West Africa presented the updated needs of the region, as expressed in the priority matrix of the EPA Development Programme projects for the period 2015-2020. It also presented an outline for the establishment of the EPA Regional Fund, which is designed to accelerate the implementation of regional projects. In response, the EU reaffirmed its commitment to the EU Council conclusions of March 2014, which committed 6.5bn EUR for the period of 2015-2020 for EPADP related projects.
Kenya tops East Africa with most infrastructure projects last year (Business Daily)
The Africa Construction Trends report 2015 says that there were some 61 reported infrastructure projects in the region worth Sh5.9 trillion ($57.5 billion), an amount nearly equivalent to the size of Kenya’s GDP. Kenya had 20 reported infrastructure deals, followed by Ethiopia which had 12 projects but Deloitte did not give a breakdown on the value of projects per country. The survey looked at reported infrastructure deals worth at least Sh5 billion ($50 million) that had broken ground by the start of June 2015. [Download]
East Africa: Ministers agree on Central Railway (Daily News)
Briefing the 'Daily News' on the deliberations of the weekend meeting, the Minister for Works, Transport and Communications Professor Makame Mbarawa said delegates [from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Tanzania] through the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency have in principle agreed to speed up the agenda. "We have seen a need of mobilising resources so that this huge project could be a reality and have therefore agreed to meet after three months for more deliberations and way forward," said the Minister. While each country needs to raise funds to facilitate the interconnection to the railway line, Tanzania has already come into a real financial burden it needs to carry on its shoulder since it hosts more than 90% of the project.
Central Corridor states to fast-track railway line project (New Times)
Musoni, who led the Rwandan delegation, said the partner states also agreed to adopt a common legal framework and operational manual to allow seamless operations. They will also set up an implementation unit under the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency to oversee the project.
NUST joins Finnish Embassy to promote Namibia as logistics hub (New Era)
The Finnish Embassy in Windhoek and the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) yesterday jointly launched the preparatory phase of an ecosystem project titled “NAMHUB: Developing Namibia as a green, safe and smart transport and logistics hub for southern Africa.” The NAMHUB project forms part of Tekes and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Business with Impact (Beam) programme for innovation, meeting the needs of developing countries and providing Finnish companies with new business opportunities in Namibia as well as local companies new opportunities in Finland. The NAMHUB research project initiative comes soon after the launch of Namibia’s Logistics Hub Master Plan in 2015.
Egypt to strengthen ties with EAC (EALA)
The Secretary General thanked Egypt for making a tariff offer to the EAC and went on to request Egypt to encourage the other member states to negotiate as a bloc instead of doing so as separate entities saying this would hasten the operationalization of the Tripartite FTA.
Ghana: Importers to demonstrate against Stamp Tax (GhanaWeb)
Importers and exporters in the country are enraged about moves by the government through the Ministry of Finance, to impose another levy on imports through a Tax Stamp Levy which the ministry is planning to implement soon. The importers are, therefore, planning a mammoth demonstration on February 25, 2016 to halt its implementation. The Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana, Samson Asaki, told The Finder that importers become an easy prey for the government each time it seeks to impose new taxes.
Kenya signs global tax deal to crackdown on multinationals (Daily Nation)
Kenya’s Ambassador to France Salma Ahmed, signed the Convention in the presence of the OECD Deputy Secretary General, Douglas Frantz committing to exchange of information that would help governments to collect revenue domestically. Kenya becomes the 12th African country to sign the Convention and the 94th jurisdiction to join it.
New report tracks the rapid growth of sustainable markets (International Trade Centre)
The State of Sustainable Markets: Statistics and Emerging Trends 2015 is the first global data report on voluntary sustainability standards. It outlines the share of bananas, cocoa, coffee, cotton, forestry, palm oil, soybeans, cane sugar and tea production covered by 14 major standards. [Download]
From fragility to resilience: managing natural resources in fragile situations in Africa (AfDB)
This Flagship Report is the first to examine how fragile states in Africa can work towards addressing the causes and drivers of fragility by better managing natural resources across sectors. This Report provides a broad vision drawing upon experiences to date; further efforts (such as checklists and resource-specific guidelines) are necessary to translate this vision into operational reality. [Download]
Forum on China-Africa Cooperation: opportunities and challenges to creating sustainable development pathways (WWF)
It is for these reasons that WWF offices in China and Africa have been engaging and working with key stakeholders and decision makers around FOCAC, with the view to influencing the policy that underpins these plans. The most recent of these engagements was a high-level WWF conference ahead of the 6th FOCAC meeting which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa in December 2015. Four panels examined in detail the issues surrounding the wildlife trade, forests, infrastructural development and mining, and renewable energy.
Unconventional gas is structurally changing global gas markets (World Energy Council)
The growth of unconventional gas is spreading across the world with major implications over many years for markets and prices according to a new World Energy Council study ‘Unconventional gas, a global phenomenon,’ which looks at where and how fast the revolution is taking place. The study, developed with project partner Accenture Strategy, says that despite an uncertain price environment, the magnitude and speed of change is not only influencing the United States market, but also other markets including countries such as China, Argentina and Algeria which have similar potential as the U.S. in shale gas production. Also, countries such as Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Poland and Turkey are mentioned in the study as having significant potential for shale gas development.
DG Azevêdo welcomes Côte d’Ivoire’s efforts in trade facilitation (WTO)
Drought ‘could push SA into recession’ (IOL)
Akinwumi Adesina: 'Approaching agriculture as an investment opportunity' (AfDB)
Trading on their terms? Commodity exporters in the aftermath of the commodity boom (IMF)
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