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tralac’s Daily News Selection
The selection: Monday, 7 March 2016
Starting today, in Dar es Salaam: East African Legislative Assembly sitting, 7-18 March. Twitter updates: @EA_Bunge
Later this week, in Lusaka: Regional Economic Communities coordination meeting, 9-12 March
Featured commentary, by Shawn Donnan: 'What ails global trade?' (The Straits Times/Financial Times)
The story is repeated and amplified far beyond Charleston. Last year saw the largest collapse in the value of goods traded around the world since 2009 - when the impact of the global financial crisis was at its worst. Moreover, major ports such as Hamburg and Singapore have reported slowing growth and even declining volumes. Barring a spectacular turnaround in the global economy, the subpar performance is likely to be repeated this year, making it the fifth straight year of lacklustre growth in global trade - a pattern not seen since the doldrums of the 1970s.
McKinsey argues that those moves, replicated in the US and elsewhere, have had a global impact, as carmakers and other companies have begun to bring production closer to home or to concentrate it in larger markets. Those patterns are starting to show in the data, with growth in global consumption of many finished products such as cars and pharmaceuticals outpacing trade growth in those goods in recent years, says McKinsey, while trade in many intermediate goods such as fabric and electrical parts has slowed.
Ethiopia: Foreign trade revenue fails to meet targets in seven months (Ethiopian Herald)
Briefing on nation's foreign trade performance here yesterday, Ministry Trade Expansion Directorate Director General Assefa Mulugeta said that some $1.51bn was secured from the export of various products failing to meet the target $2.1bn during the reported period. The revenue garnered from coffee, cereal crops, meat and Chat has achieved between 75-99% whereas horticulture, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, textile, livestock, chemical, construction inputs and others have registered 50-74%, he said. Of all the export items, Assefa said that gold, minerals, processed fruit products, foods, Tantalum, beverages, vet medicine and metal products, among others, have generated lower foreign revenue below 50%.
Trade in services: case studies from Africa (AU)
This volume is a compendium of five case studies of successful services exports in Africa. It highlights Air Transport Services in Ethiopia, Banking Services in Nigeria, Business Processing Outsourcing/ICT Services in Senegal, Cultural Services in Burkina Faso, and Higher Education Services in Uganda. The studies are an examination of possible best practices in services exports on the continent, as seen from the suppliers’ point view, with a review of the role of government policy and other factors that may have shaped their success. The studies find that most of the services exports from African Union members at present go to the regional market but some African countries have already diversified beyond the continent. In addition, they find that while certain initial factors have been key to the competitiveness of services sectors, supportive government policies and a conducive business-enabling environment have also been critical to their growth. [The editors: Sherry Stephenson, Carolyne Tumuhimbise] [Download]
CFTA-related tweets, by @snkaringi: President @UKenyatta today expressed the need for Kenya & Ghana to harmonize their vision with the CFTA supported by ECOWAS and EAC. Critical, as this week @UNCTAD and partners support ECOWAS' efforts to develop regional strategy 4 CFTA in Accra.
Related: President Kenyatta commits to a borderless African continent (Peace FM), President Kenyatta roots for increased Kenya-Ghana trade (Capital News)
TFTA: COMESA ministers urge states to speed up signing the Tripartite Agreement (COMESA)
In their Sixth Extra Ordinary meeting in Lusaka, 3–4 March 2016, the Ministers noted that since the launch of the TFTA in June 2016, 16 out of the 26 countries had signed the agreement. So far, none of the tripartite countries have ratified the Agreement. Those that have signed include Angola, Burundi, Comoros, D R Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Seychelles, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Giving an update on the status of the TFTA, the COMESA Secretariat reported that national consultations on signing were on-going in Lesotho and Seychelles while similar consultations on ratification were underway in Sudan, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. The Ministers were also informed that considerable amount of work had been done during three subsequent meetings convened by the technical working groups on Rules of Origin, and Trade remedies. As a result, six out of seven annexes that had been finalized were submitted to legal scrubbing. These are Annexes 3,5,6,7,8,9 on non-tariff barriers, customs cooperation, trade facilitation, transit trade and transit facilitation, technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures respectively.
Mozambique, Malawi eye one-stop border posts (StarAfrica)
Mozambique and Malawi have announced plans to establish one-stop centres at four border crossings in Tete and Niassa provinces as part of a strategy to facilitate the movement of people and goods, state radio reported Saturday. According to Radio Mozambique, the one-stop border posts would be established at the Chiponda-Mandimba and Mchinji-Mwami borders in the northern province of Niassa as well as Mwanza-Zóbuè and Dedza-Calómuè borders in the western Tete province.
West Africa: draft conclusions and recommendations from the ICE meeting (UNECA)
To member states: (i) continue to support ECA in its efforts towards the development of national statistics systems and support sub-regional development initiatives; (ii) strengthen technical collaboration with ECA as well as the domestication of country profiles as aid instruments for decision-making in the formulation of economic and social policies for the structural transformation of sub-regional economies.
Related: Bringing international trade innovations to West African countries: an interview with Ms Valentina Mintah (Leadership), 2015 SWAC Forum summary report: resilience and food security in West Africa (OECD SWAC)
COMESA: Enhancing financial inclusion through enhancement of the regulatory and supervisory framework (COMESA Monetary Institute)
The workshop produced a regulatory and supervision frame work which balances financial inclusion and financial stability and also recommended the preparation of Model Strategy for Financial inclusion in COMESA Region from 2017-2022, which details performance benchmarks for financial inclusion; a wider basket of products and services for financially excluded and possible delivery channels of the identified services. [Financial inclusion in Rwanda 2016 (FinScope)]
Key Bills on East African single currency complete (The East African)
The Bills for the establishment of the East African Monetary Institute, East African Bureau of Statistics and the Surveillance, Compliance and Enforcement Commission have been completed. “The EAMI Bill was finalised and is awaiting approval by the Sectoral Council on Finance and Economic Affairs, a statistics Bill was negotiated and is with legal drafters while the EA Surveillance, Compliance and Enforcement Commission Bill will be negotiated this month,” Geoffrey Mwau, director-general of the Budget, Fiscal and Economic Affairs Department in Kenya’s National Treasury told The EastAfrican. It has however emerged that the partner states are yet to complete preparing the Medium Term Convergence Programme covering the financial years 2015/16 to 2019/20. According to Kenya’s Ministry of East Africa Affairs, this exercise was to be concluded before the July 2015 meeting of the Sectoral Council on Finance and Economic Affairs.
East Africa: twitter updates
@KagutaMuseveni: With South Sudan joining the East African Community, our regional block’s geographical area is now almost the same size as India
@DonatBagula: Ethiopia interested 2 consider membership @NorthernCoridor 2 foster regional integration
@Kiptoock: Yesterday in nbi at N/Corridor projects meeting of immigration, labour & trade ministers, PS's & officials
Related: Lonzen Rugira: 'South Sudan and Burundi - from Arusha with a bitter taste in the mouth' (New Times), Kenya to soldier on even as partners in Lapsset pull out (Daily Nation), Oil pipeline: Which way for Uganda? (Daily Monitor), Mitumba ban - a plan that will soon unravel (editorial comment, The EastAfrican), Kenya to phase out passports, adopt regional travel permit (Club of Mozambique), Adopt EA passport cautiously (editorial comment, Business Daily), Charles Onyango-Obbo: 'Juba now allowed to play barefoot in the big league' (The East African), Magufuli begins austerity drive to instil discipline at EAC Secretariat (The East African)
South Sudan: Human Development Report 2015 (UNDP)
Chapter 6 explores the elements for creating the foundation of inclusive prosperity based on a vibrant national private sector and strong regional integration. For such prosperity to occur both immediate and longer term policy issues need to be addressed, as well as the hydrocarbons sector brought into alignment with national aspirations, given its current predominance as both an engine and impediment to sustainable growth. This chapter explores five cornerstones for establishing a sustainably growing and inclusive economy. [Eugene Owusu: 'South Sudan - beyond the dangers of today to the hopes of tomorrow' (The EastAfrican)]
Egypt: Planning for 2030 (Ahram)
The strategy was drafted jointly by the government, the private sector and NGOs and took two years of meetings and discussions to finish. The cases of several other countries drafting similar strategies were thoroughly studied in putting together the strategy, including those of Malaysia, India and the UAE. “We also looked at the EU, especially the Eastern European countries which have several socio-economic similarities with Egypt. The Polish experience was very helpful as it was similar to ours 20 years ago,” said Nihal Al-Megharbel, first assistant to the minister of planning and one of the main authors of the report.
Chinese investments to boost Africa's manufacturing capacity (Shanghai Daily)
"There are opportunities for certain manufacturing capacity to shift to Africa," Jeremy Stevens, Economist with the Standard Advisory (China) Limited, told Xinhua in an interview during a forum on the China-Africa Economic Cooperation convened by the CFC-Stanbic Bank. The forum was attended by dozens of Chinese investors, mostly corporate clients of the Standard Bank, to discuss ways of managing the economic challenges and the volatile debt markets in China. CFC-Stanbic Bank executives said there was need for regular exchange of information on how to effectively help economic players in both China and Africa to manage the economic challenges likely to affect them. "The slowdown in China suits Africa's needs because there would be more Chinese firms willing to invest outside China in order to generate economic growth and create an investment climate that would suit their long-term economic growth potentials in future. Africa will benefit," Stevens told Xinhua. [China-South Africa investment provides Uganda phosphate project with $240m boost (Mining Weekly)]
Korea-Africa trade and investment: increasing private sector investments in frontier markets through a regional approach (AfDB)
The services to be provided under the assignment include: a) conduct a survey among Korean chaebol and SMEs that are interested in doing or expanding business in one of the following regions in Africa: (i) Great Lakes; (ii) Horn of Africa; (iii) Sahel; and (iv) Mano River Basin. The region will be identified based on its potential for Korean companies to do/expand business there. The survey will assess, prioritize and cluster the main investment and trade sectors and identify the biggest constraints to do business. [Africa's power infrastructure: EOI for estimating investment needs, preparation of analytical reports (AfDB)]
WTO woos African states with top slot at key organ (Business Daily)
The World Trade Organisation members have elected Xavier Carim of South Africa to head its dispute settlement body (DSB) in yet another effort aimed at putting developing states at the centre of global trading system. Mr Carim will begin by steering DSB’s next regular meeting scheduled for March 23 after WTO delegates elected him by acclamation to replace outgoing chairman Harald Neple of Norway. Mr Carim faces numerous disputes, among them access of biotech products to global market and agricultural subsidy.
Women’s rights to land must be strengthened: African parliamentarians (UNECA)
‘Save Wildlife’ conference updates, downloads
Michael Froman: 'Trade policy’s role in protecting wildlife' (State Department)
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