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tralac’s Daily News Selection
The selection: Thursday, 21 April 2016
Next week’s profiled trade and investment policy conferences:
In Accra: CABRI's Policy Dialogue on revenue management in the extractives sector
The dialogue (26-27 April) will focus on the management of revenue from the extractives sector, specifically minerals and hydrocarbons. The extractives sector is a new focus of CABRI’s policy dialogues that aim to promote knowledge exchange and peer learning in ways that public spending can be more effective, efficient and economic. Keynote report 1: Extractive industries and their linkages with the rest of the economy, Keynote report 2: Revenue management in the extractives sector
In Kampala: a public forum, 30 April, on #TheCFTAWeWant
South Africa: DTI budget vote address, Dr Rob Davies
Our regional trade integration efforts have already had an impact; the continent is now the destination for 30% of South Africa's total exports. More importantly, our trade with the Continent is in value-added products and has been growing while our trade with our traditional partners has stagnated. It is no exaggeration to say that our Manufacturing sector would be in dire straits had Government not consciously decided to focus on developing the African market a decade ago. As we continue to improve our support to exporters trading with Africa, I am pleased to announce that the Africa Export Council commenced operations on the 1st of April 2016. This - our first - multi-sectoral Export Council will ensure that we provide targeted and customised support to manufacturing and service exporters trading on the Continent.
Linked to this, we continue to develop our export credit offering so that South African exporters and especially those operating in the capital goods sector are able to compete on an equal footing with the many global players who are also operating in this space. In addition to this a Services Export Strategy that is aimed at assisting South African firms to integrate into global supply chains of multi-national firms, by actively promoting subcontracting in power, infrastructure programmes and the built environment will be launched.
South Africa: Tyre-manufacturing sector hits a pothole (IOL)
The tyre manufacturing industry has been thwarted in its new attempt to reduce the threat of cheap illegal tyre imports to the sustainability and survival of the industry. This follows the SA Revenue Service (Sars) and Customs and Excise rejecting an industry proposal for a mass-based methodology to determine tyre import duties because of fears it will contravene World Trade Organisation (WTO) and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt) rules.
COMESA Business Dialogue: documentation
The 10th COMESA Business Dialogue was convened [25-26 March 2015] on the margins of the 18th COMESA Heads of State Summit in Addis Ababa. The Dialogue was held under the theme; Taking Action on Illicit Trade- An industrial Competitiveness Agenda. The objective of the Dialogue was to adopt a Public Private approach to combating illicit trade in the COMESA region. The Dialogue attracted more than 150 delegates from the public and private sectors; from the manufacturing sector, construction industry, ICT industries, pharmaceuticals, tobacco industries, international investors and the Chambers of Commerce and Industries in the COMESA region. The key recommendations included: the Development of the COMESA Anti-Illicit Trade Protocol, strengthening of dedicated anti-illicit trade institutional units at national and regional level, strengthening enforcement mechanisms, Public Private Collaboration, proactive action against corruption and the development of the ‘Made in COMESA’ label. [The conference report is not yet available but the presentations can be downloaded]
Vimal Shah: 'Why Africa’s future growth is about the long game' (Knowledge@Wharton)
Q: What are some of the challenges you have faced in expanding to other countries? And how have you addressed those challenges? Shah: 'The challenge that has come up on this issue of trading with other countries is, first, a lot of African countries have been changing policies quite often. Therefore, the predictability of economics, the predictability of where they’re going, is not always clear. No. 2, compliance levels. A lot of countries have varying degrees of compliance. Some are very compliant and some are not. So the trade practices in each country are different. A lot of informal trade has also been happening in a lot of these countries. We go in with computerized systems, everything above board; we pay our taxes. We find challenges in some countries where this is not happening. However, the good news is that this is all changing and it’s happening fast.'
Donald Kaberuka: 'Resources not Africa’s only gem' (Business Day)
I am not suggesting the rise in demand and prices for commodities has not been important for Africa’s economic progress. But the continent’s turnaround began well before the commodity bull-run. The focus on commodities has downplayed the importance of other sectors such as IT and services. Recent statistical reviews of the economies of countries such as Nigeria and Ghana have shown the size and growth of these sectors has been consistently underestimated.
Abuja to become trade hub in Africa in 2020, says chamber (The Herald)
The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry is planning to make the Federal Capital Territory one of the most powerful trade hubs in Africa before 2020. 1st Deputy President of the chamber, Mr Adetokunbo Kayode, said through effective networking, innovative and proactive business strategies, the chamber had attracted investments worth billions of dollars to the nation. “The Shoprite is a clear testimony. Today marks another history in the chamber’s quest to make Abuja a `Dubai-like’ city. [Dangote and Africa’s renewal (ThisDay)]
High-Level Forum: 'The Africa we want in 2030, 2063 and beyond' (UN)
The UN and African countries are working as one to support the continent’s people in realizing their hopes and aspirations for peace and development, which will require “bold and decisive” action, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said today at a special event on the continent’s future. Organized by the AU, the Government of Sweden, and the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, the meeting delved into thematic areas which exhibit a strong link between the agendas. In his remarks, Mr. Eliasson underlined his wish to focus on three points in particular: [Background: UN-AU partnership on Africa’s integration and development agenda]
Revving the engine of services trade (World Bank)
Trade fell dramatically during the 2008 financial crisis and has grown sluggishly since then. But this overall trend obscures an important fact: trade in services has proven remarkably resilient, and has been steadily growing since 2010. This expansion of services trade - from health and education to transport, telecommunications, and tourism - presents developing countries with significant opportunities. Until recently data on services trade policies was sparse. But in this month’s Policy Research Talk, Research Manager Aaditya Mattoo unveiled a body of new research and data, including the Services Trade Restrictions Database, that is advancing knowledge about services trade policies, and how best to reform them. Drawing on data on the 40 poorest countries in the world, Mattoo found that services account for more than half of GDP and employment. “If these countries are to grow, and lift people out of poverty, there needs to be a dramatic improvement in the state of services,” Mattoo said. [Related: Aaditya Mattoo's PIIE presentation]
A selection of postings on India's services sector: 'Poised for global ascendancy' - a KPMG/CII report, 'Services to play key role in WTO's trade facilitation pact', Services exports plunge 12.55% in February
From the OECD’s Working Party on International Trade in Goods and Trade in Services Statistics: More detailed trade in services statistics, Merchandise trade versus BOP trade in goods
SEATINI’s position on UNCTAD XIV session pre-conference negotiating text
It is against this background that we present our proposals for consideration in the pre-conference negotiating text and the subsequent declaration. We are proposing areas for further emphasis in the pre-conference negotiating text and the subsequent declaration. Areas which should be emphasized in the text:
On regional trade agreements and the mega regionals: While para 40 (n) of the Pre-Conference negotiating text proposes that the role of UNCTAD should be to assess the implications of plurilateral and regional trade agreements for development prospects of developing countries, we are proposing that UNCTAD should go further to build the capacity of RECs to enable them to factor this process in their regional integration processes.
Trading into sustainable development (UNCTAD)
Trade policymaking, as an integral element of a country's development strategies, will require a new, more holistic approach that looks across three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. This report provides a mapping of the new landscape facing trade policymakers, and helps them navigate in their design, implementation and assessment of trade policy. It also examines the complex interactions between market access conditions - customs tariffs, non-tariff measures and physical connectivity to markets - and the determinants of sustainable development.
Duncan Green: 'Some fascinating new research on how food prices affect people’s lives and politics' (World Bank Blogs)
One of the projects I was proudest of getting off the ground while in (nominal) charge of Oxfam’s research team was ‘Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility’, a four year study of the impact of the chaotic food prices of recent years on the lives of poor people and communities in rural and urban communities in ten countries. Now the project has published its findings in a special issue of the IDS Bulletin. The conclusions of all this effort? This conclusion from the overall introduction to the bulletin by Patta Scott-Villiers and Alexandra Wanjiku-Herbert:
Roman Grynberg: 'African infrastructure and the economics of 10%' (The Namibian)
Botswana continues to buy power from Eskom at very high spot market prices linked to the cost of diesel power−generation. How did this grand and expensive disaster occur? There are many reasons but there has never been, nor shall there ever likely be a public or parliamentary inquiry into the failure of Moropula B, which has so retarded private sector development in the country.
Commentaries on East African infrastructure: Lillian Ochieng: 'Cost of oil pipeline routes' (Daily Monitor), Charles Onyango-Obbo: 'If you think the Uganda pipeline is about a pipeline, you are dead wrong'
Tanzania's 'bold,new 100trn/- national development blue print' is unveiled (IPPmedia)
The National Development Plan 2016/17-2020/21 aims to boost industrialisation and transform Tanzania into a middle-income country by 2020 by pumping 107 trillion/- of public investments into the economy. The new blueprint titled "Nurturing Industrialisation for Economic Transformation and Human Development" is the latest indication of spending plans and priorities of President Magufuli's government over the next five years. The Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Philip Mpango, presented the plan to parliament yesterday and said the Magufuli government's development blueprint over the next five years will focus on flagship infrastructure projects such as construction of a standard gauge railway and the revival of the ailing national flag carrier, Air Tanzania.
Inaugural 2016 report of the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development (UNDESA)
The first edition of the report of the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development maps out the commitments and action items contained in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and lays out how the Task Force will monitor their implementation in future years. The Task Force has carefully gone through the full range of these commitments and action items to create a framework for monitoring. It compiled them into nine chapters – on cross-cutting issues, the seven action areas of the Addis Agenda, and on data. In each chapter, commitments and actions are organized by thematic clusters, for which the Task Force presents options for monitoring.
India to appeal against WTO solar ruling in next few days (Livemint)
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