News
tralac’s Daily News selection
The selection: Friday, 19 February 2016
Featured tweet, by Dr Chris Kiptoo (Kenya's Trade PS): 'Our maiden mission on economic diplomacy to [Washington] DC to lobby to reduce impact of TPP on AGOA'
Starting on Monday:
In Addis: the Continental Free Trade Area Negotiating Forum
The meeting in Addis Ababa will be preceded by a two-day capacity building and information sharing workshop (22-23 February 2016) where the AUC will introduce a capacity needs assessment and share findings and conclusions from a select number of studies that have been conducted on the establishment of the CFTA. The main objective of 1st Meeting of the Continental Free Trade Area Negotiating Forum is to consider all the post launch preparatory issues and essential process issues and technical documents that will enable the efficient conduct of the negotiations. Specifically, the meeting will undertake the following:
In Luanda: the 46th Southern Africa Power Pool meeting
EAC moves to reduce heavy reliance on US dollar in intra-regional trade (New Times)
While presenting the monetary policy and financial stability statement in Kigali, yesterday, the Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, John Rwangombwa, said Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania were already part of the agreement. Burundi is also part of the memorandum of understanding. “We also worked with our partners within the region to ensure currency convertibility; we want to be using our local currency to trade across our borders. We are working with Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda; we have a memorandum of understanding on currency convertibility. Burundi is also signatory to the agreement. We expected to reduce the volatility of the impact of the US Dollar in our economies,” Rwangombwa said. [Download: Monetary policy and financial stability statement]
Mauritius: inclusiveness of growth and shared prosperity (World Bank)
The rise in income inequality combined with lagging shared prosperity indicators have adverse impacts on relative poverty in Mauritius, says a World Bank report launched today. “We believe Mauritius has what it takes to achieve its ambition of becoming a high income country with the implementation of the right set of reforms,” said Mark Lundell, World Bank Country Director for Mauritius, Mozambique, Madagascar, Seychelles, and Comoros. “Reaching high-income status will imply a careful review of the country’s economic model. This includes the ability to improve the labour force skills set, develop infrastructure, and further improve the business environment to attract FDI and generate domestic investment.” [Download] [World Bank reiterates support to the new economic strategy of Mauritius (Government of Mauritius)]
Mozambique: Better enforcement of anticorruption laws needed to clean up business (Transparency International)
Minimal enforcement of anti-corruption laws coupled with the private sector’s lack of exposure to international anti-corruption norms allows corruption to thrive in Mozambique’s business sector, according to a new study from Transparency International and its chapter in Mozambique, the Center for Public Integrity. The new report, which will help set a Business Integrity Country Agenda for Mozambique, is part of an effort by the Centre for Public Integrity and Transparency International to reduce corruption in Mozambique’s private sector.
AGOA: SA failure to comply might benefit Botswana (Daily News)
Apart from AGOA, Botswana, under the SACU configuration, is negotiating a SACU-US Trade, Investment, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TIDCA). This cooperative agreement, said the deputy permanent secretary, aims to promote an attractive investment climate and to expand and diversify trade between the two parties through capacity building on areas that include trade and investment promotion as well as trade facilitation. Ms Ward said the cooperative agreement would also address technical barriers, sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures as well as private sector involvement.
EXIM Bank holds meeting to facilitate US/Angola trade (Angola Press)
The director of Global Business Development for Africa of Export-Import Bank of the United States, Rick Angiuoni, will meet with major commercial banks and officials of the Government of Angola to discuss funding programmes of this financial institution. In 2014, the EXIM Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Angolan Government to finance trade and infrastructures, using the EXIM financing tools.
Ghana: Parliament discuss proposed EXIM Bank (GhanaWeb)
An Export and Import Bank bill which is currently before Parliament has received attention with the document going through a second reading. The bill is to provide legislation to back a project that will see Ghana provide some financial assistance to its local firms engaged in the business of export and import.
Related: AGI President welcomes CET implementation for manufacturers (News Ghana), CBN policy hurting our economy, Ghanaians lament (The Cable), GUTA unhappy with GIPC over influx of foreign retail traders in Ghana (News Ghana)
The Nigerian economy: past, present and future (National Bureau of Statistics)
The Nigerian Economy; Past, Present and Future is the fourth edition of Macroeconomic forecasts being published at the NBS and aims to provide policy-makers, researchers, investors and the general public of its assessment of the Nigerian economy in the past years, the likely trends of key macroeconomic indicators in the current year and future years. Similar to previous editions published by the NBS, the focus of this report continues to be macroeconomic statistics including GDP, Inflation, and Merchandise Trade; key macroeconomic indices followed by policy makers and analysts. [Download]
Egypt establishes model farms in Tanzania, Zambia, Congo (FreshPlaza)
Three model pilot farms have been set up in Tanzania, Zambia and Congo, through an agreement between Egypt's Ministry of agriculture and the governments of the respective countries. The farms have areas ranging between 500 and 600 acres. Director of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, (COMESA), Department at the Ministry of Agriculture Maher El-Maghrabi said the ministry agreed with the three countries to establish farms to produce various crops. The ministry is intensifying its efforts, through the centre, to increase the number of farms in all African countries by negotiating with Ethiopia, Kenya, and Eritrea and other states to establish plantations on 600 acres of land per farm to deepen mutual agricultural cooperation. [Reining in imports (Al-Ahram Weekly)]
Kenya eyes crude exports in 2017 via trucks and railway (Business Daily)
Kenya is considering moving its crude oil to Mombasa by road and railway as President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration races to hit export markets before the General Election set for August next year. The Energy ministry has offered Rift Valley Railways the contract to move the oil over a distance of more than 800km, from Eldoret to the Kipevu-based Kenya Petroleum Refineries from as early as February next year. By choosing trucks and train, Mr Kenyatta’s administration appears determined to sidestep bureaucracy involved in constructing a joint pipeline with Uganda in an effort to beat its tight timelines.
India’s failed diplomacy at the WTO (Livemint)
The development agenda has taken a beating of late in Nairobi and then again in Paris. And with the day of the BRICS grouping all but done as their economies tread divergent paths, a splintering of consensus among the leaders of the developing world has already begun to show. WTO negotiations will not get any easier from here on. New Delhi must do better than it has done so far.
India to push for BRICS cooperation in services, non-tariff measures (The Hindu)
India, which has gained presidency of the five-nation BRICS this year, is planning to initiate greater cooperation among member-countries in the areas of services and ways to deal with non-tariff measures. As per the Commerce Ministry’s action plan, the exercise will kick off with two seminars, comprising senior officials from all five countries in the identified areas of NTMs and services in April this year. “The seminars will be an exploratory exercise to see how the countries can cooperate in boosting services trade and also addressing NTMs, such as onerous standards and procedures, to boost flow of goods and services,” a government official told BusinessLine. It will be followed by a second meeting sometime later.
Putting trade and investment at the centre of the G20 (World Bank Blogs)
It might not have made the leading global headlines but, three weeks ago, there was a significant new development in global governance of trade and foreign investment. In Beijing, China convened the first meeting of a new working group in the G20 to pursue initiatives in these areas: the G20 Trade and Investment Working Group (TIWG). Over two days, officials from G20 members and invited governments, along with the World Bank Group and other international organizations, discussed the future direction of trade and investment in the G20. This is a promising step. [The author: Marcus Bartley Johns]
Painful spillovers from slowing BRICS growth (VOX)
South Africa: Zuma makes economy his new mantra (Business Day)
Zim deflation decelerates (Zimbabwe Independent)
Somalia-Eritrea Sanctions Committee: UNSC update (UN)
The Chair of the “751/1907” Somalia-Eritrea Sanctions Committee provided an update to the Security Council on the recent findings of its Monitoring Group, as delegates called for improved coordination to staunch the illegal charcoal trade in Somalia, and pressed Eritrea for “frank and sincere” cooperation over its reported involvement in the Yemen conflict, support for armed groups in Ethiopia and progress on the question of Djibouti war prisoners.
Laurent Bossard: 'Why have they chopped Africa in two?' (SWAC, OECD)
In his most recent post published on the OECD Development Posts blog, SWAC Secretariat Director Laurent Bossard draws attention to two opposing visions of the African continent. The African Union’s administrative organisation is based on the establishment of five major regions within which national borders freely allow production, trade and friendship to flourish between peoples; the five groupings being ultimately destined to merge into a vast continental whole. On the other hand, development partners tend to deal with sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa separately. “Without warning, the international community is chopping Africa in two! It has created (no one knows exactly when) a region unknown to geographers made up of North Africa and the Middle East, known by the MENA acronym. In minds and in policies, Africa ceases to be a continent. It is demoted to the rank of region and its regions lowered to the status of sub-regions”, Mr Bossard writes. [MENA: WEF meeting cancelled (Al-Ahram Weekly)]
Global manufacturing increased modestly in 2015 (UNIDO)
Global manufacturing production rose by just 2.8% in 2015 as developing and emerging industrial economies registered reduced growth rates, according to the 2016 edition of the International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics released in Vienna today. The Yearbook states that despite a declining manufacturing growth rate China has become the largest manufacturer in the world, surpassing the United States of America. Japan, Germany and the Republic of Korea stand in third, fourth and fifth positions, respectively. Among other industrial economies, India moved up to sixth position, leaving Italy and France in seventh and eighth positions among the world’s leading manufacturers. Indonesia has become a new entrant to the group of top 10 manufacturers.
Interim Economic Outlook (OECD)
The OECD projects that the global economy will grow by 3% this year and 3.3% in 2017, which is well below long-run averages of around 3¾ percent. This is also lower than would be expected during a recovery phase for advanced economies, and given the pace of growth that could be achieved by emerging economies in convergence mode. The Interim Economic Outlook calls for a stronger policy response, changing the policy mix to confront the current weak growth more effectively.
AIIB: Now comes the hard part (commentary by Larry Greenwood, CSIS)
tralac’s Daily News archive
Catch up on tralac’s daily news selections by following this link ».
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 350 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.
