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tralac’s Daily News Selection
The selection: Wednesday, 18 May 2016
Today, in Rome: first Italy-Africa Ministerial Conference (which includes a trade component)
The AfDB’s Annual Meetings will take place next week in Lusaka (for the first time since 1973)
Welcome to the ECA’s Knowledge Repository: over 18000 searchable documents (UNECA)
In its 50 years of existence, UNECA has created and holds a vast quantity of information and Knowledge in a variety of formats, including printed and electronic. These represent the corporate memory, providing historical evidence of its actions and decisions. The Knowledge Repository offers unique knowledge and information not available elsewhere pertaining to regional programmes, decisions and resolutions promoting social and economic development in Africa.
The keys to unlocking Africa: the critical role of logistics (FIATA)
With logistics in scope, FIATA and its 23 national associations representing the interests of over 1300 enterprises across Africa, have put forth a coordinated position which stresses four main points: the need for holistic policy formulation by African Union members; the benefit of coordinated regional policy implementation; the greater influence that regional bodies can achieve; and the importance of private sector input. The position paper will be presented at 2016 FIATA’s Region Africa Middle East meeting in Addis Ababa, on 19 May 2016.
US exports to Sub Saharan Africa remain low (SABC)
US Export-import Bank President and Chair of the Board Fred Hochberg says the bank wants to signal to buyers in Sub Saharan Africa that they stand ready to fill financing gaps that currently limit the purchasing of big-budget American products and services to the region. "It’s a bank that seeks to finance American exports through direct loans and guarantees to foreign entities that might not have otherwise been able to make the transaction. Since President Barack Obama was elected and I came in as Chair, we’ve done over $7bn worth of loans, guarantees and insurance in Sub Saharan Africa, almost double the report from President Clinton and President Bush combined," says Hochberg.
Rethinking Africa-China trade: some policy considerations and implications (AgEcon)
We perform accounting and simulation exercises to analyze how trade policy and productivity shocks will reduce SSA's dependency on raw material export to China. Scenarios include tariff elimination by China, common external tariff in SSA, and free regional trade in SSA. We also include shifts in labour productivity in SSA’s agriculture and manufacturing sectors and simulate technology spillover from SSA imports from China. Results show: [The authors: Manitera Rakotoarisoa, Cheng Fang]
Zambia Human Development Report 2016: Industrialisation and human development (UNDP)
Zambia is less likely to expand its export presence in the regional markets without any deliberate strategy to diversify its products into more finished and capital goods, because copper is not readily consumed within the regional markets. In addition, Zambian exports are found to be of low ubiquity. To effectively exploit this market, the country must focus and increasingly shift to the production of goods that can be consumed by industry and households in these markets. While regional trade directly impacts on industrialisation and human development, Zambia's experience has been one in which increased trade has coincided with shrinking value-added in the manufacturing sector. Similarly, serious distributional effects occur across varying levels of worker skills, sectors, and gender, which call for strong rather than weak policies and regulatory institutions. Given the current context, it is suggested: [See Chapter 5: Trade in Zambia]
Zambia’s total trade with Malawi and Mozambique only 1% - Saana (The Post)
“If we take this triangle of countries: Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, which is where we have been working from in the last few years and there is a tremendous amount of interest; these countries form a natural economic space but at the same time, the value of trade, even though it has been going up, the trade among the three is only one per cent of their total trade,” Saana Consulting co-founder and managing director Tom Pengelly told journalists during a phone conference from London. The Saana Institute will, in conjunction with AECOM London, host a high-level panel expert roundtable discussion on accelerating growth in the Malawi-Zambia-Mozambique growth triangle next week.
Botswana: Legislative overhaul to ease doing business (Mmegi)
Government will review and enact at least 11 laws during the National Development Plan (NDP11) to improve the ease of doing business and global competitiveness. Laws set for review and enactment include investment facilitation, amendment of the Customs Control Act, Trade Act, Companies Act, Environmental Assessment Act, Transfer Duty Act, Deeds Registry Act and Registration of Business Act.
Namibia: Market Share Promotion update (New Era)
Despite massive odds, particularly given the current drought and consecutive droughts since 2012, Namibian small and medium-scale producers have markedly increased their supply of fruit and vegetables to traders. The value of formally marketed local produce increased from N$195.4m to N$235.8m between February 2015 and February 2016 and emphasises the important role these producers play in providing food for people. The market regulation is known as the Namibian Market Share Promotion (MSP), where all importers of fresh fruit and vegetables in Namibia are required to buy a minimum percentage of their fresh produce from Namibian producers - before they are granted a permit to import fresh produce from outside the country. Currently this minimum percentage stands at 44%, up from a mere 5% since the inception of MSP in 2005.
Living on the Margins: the migrant experience of Basotho in South Africa (Daily Maverick)
While the process for Basotho may play out similarly to the Zimbabwean experience – a rush to apply right at the deadline – this is not guaranteed because of the different histories of migration from Zimbabwe and Lesotho. Judging by the first set of numbers released this week, the South African and Lesotho governments have a long way to go in building the requisite trust to bring people out of the shadows. [The author, John Aerni-Flessner, is based at Michigan State University]
Mozambique: Why it is important to have complete information on the public debt (Centro de Integridade Pública)
CIP is following these developments with great concern. Since 2014, the Mozambican economy has been suffering from a significant drop in total earnings, including foreign exchange income, which has a direct impact on the financial health of the country’s economy in general and on public finances in particular. The year 2016 will be even more difficult, even though the Government Budget approved for 2016 indicates higher levels of revenues than those realized in 2015. In two publications, CIP has questioned both the 2016 Budget Proposal sent to the National Assembly and the Government Budget 2016 approved by the National Assembly. In particular, CIP has raised questions regarding the soundness of fiscal projections:
SADC: ministerial workshop on food security and poverty eradication
The workshop recommended that the SADC Chairperson should champion a binding monitoring and evaluation mechanism of continental and regional commitments. To this effect the Secretariat should be empowered and capacitated to monitor and report to Summit. The Workshop recommended the strengthening of regional and national information systems including early warning and monitoring systems, and acceleration of the establishment of the regional disaster preparedness fund.
SADC: update on El Niño-induced drought (SADC)
While the Regional Drought Disaster Declaration is yet to be made, the Regional Response Team has already started compiling data and statistics for a possible Regional Appeal document. Meanwhile, the Team will continue to publish El-Nino Drought Situation Reports like the current one on a monthly basis. Member States are currently conducting their national vulnerability assessments for the 2016/17 marketing year which are expected to be completed by early June 2016. Information from these assessments will form the basis for a possible Regional Appeal. [SADC Livestock Technical Committee: communiqué (AU-IBAR)]
Reuben Maigwa: 'Is food security and tobacco growing incompatible in Africa?' (Hivisasa)
It may come as a surprise to learn that as part of tobacco companies’ Integrated Production System, tobacco farmers are encouraged and supported to grow food crops such as maize and soya beans as part of a sustainable and responsible growing and procurement system. In some sub-Saharan African countries, IPS farmers are now growing more food crop than tobacco by weight. Perhaps even more surprising is the productivity of tobacco farmers growing food crops. IPS tobacco farmers in SSA countries are growing food crops at a yield 50% to 300% higher than the national average. Up to 60% of IPS tobacco farmers maize production feeds into the national market, thereby contributing directly to national food security. [The author is President of the Tobacco Association of Malawi] [Zim exports $164m tobacco to China]
Sugar industry headed for a shake-up (WSJ)
In the biggest change, the European Union will remove production quotas and minimum payments for sugar-beet farmers from October 2017. Farmers are expected to push much of the additional supply to export markets, which would turn the EU into a bigger competitor abroad. Separately, the WTO is considering whether Thailand, the world’s second-largest sugar exporter, is breaking trade rules by subsidizing its production in a case brought by Brazil, the world’s largest producer and a loud voice for liberalization. Market barriers in Africa also are under pressure from regional trade agreements.
The case for transforming SADC PF into regional parliament (Daily News)
Addressing a joint session of SADC PF standing committees in Johannesburg, South Africa last week, Dr Chiviya noted that a regional parliament is the missing arm of the supposed three arms of SADC. The other two, the Secretariat (the executive) and the Tribunal (the judiciary) are already in place. He also pointed out that unlike other regions of the continent such as East and West Africa where regional parliaments exist, Southern Africa does not have a regional parliament. “This has resulted in the absence of a systematic and coordinated channel for the collective voice of SADC Parliaments into Pan African Parliament processes and deliberations.” [First ever health information portal for SADC in preparation (IOM)]
Nigeria's Human Development Report 2016: an assessment of the status of human security and human development in Nigeria (UNDP)
The overall objective of this report is to assess the status of human security and human development in Nigeria. Specifically, the project aims at: gathering first-hand information about human security threats and challenges in Nigeria; analyse information and data in order to gain a reliable sense of the nature, depth and ramifications of threats to life and livelihoods, and possible remedies; aggregate findings to stimulate the application of the human security framework in the human development approach at national, state and local levels; and offer recommendations that can contribute to the on-going processes of policy development and implementation that in turn address the opportunities and challenges facing human security in the country. [Oil has failed to 'add value to the average Nigerian': an interview with Aminu Umar (DW)]
Senegal-Gambia border talks collapse (The Herald)
A first round of Senegal-Gambia talks to end a three-month border blockade has ended without agreement amid an impasse over a long-delayed bridge project, a senior advisor to Senegal’s foreign minister said on Monday. The advisor said the Dakar government would encourage militant truckers blocking commercial traffic to halt the standoff. The blockade, which has created shortages of essential daily items on both sides of the frontier, followed the Gambia’s decision to slap a hundred-fold hike on fees for trucks entering its territory.
Botswana: Textile and Clothing Institute gets govt's nod (Mmegi)
Its founder, Shahid Ghafoor, president of the Botswana Textile and Clothing Association, said TCIB was offering one-year certificate courses in clothing manufacturing in a wide variety of skills. He said the establishment of TCIB and the recent extension of AGOA will offer opportunities for local clothing manufacturers to export their products.
Trade as a tool for the economic empowerment of women (UNCTAD)
The background note explores the gender and trade nexus focusing on three sectors: agriculture, manufacturing and services. It also includes a comprehensive examination of the treatment of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment within the new global development frameworks, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development. [Prepared for the meeting, 23-24 May 2016]
Helen Clark: statement at High-level Committee on South-South Co-operation (UNDP)
UNDP’s promotion of South-South and Triangular Co-operation has risen steadily in recent years, from around 270 projects which utilized South-South Co-operation in support of development results in 2013 to around 690 in 2015. We have been developing, in close consultation with Member States, a corporate strategy on South-South and Triangular Co-operation, with the objective of expanding this work further. [South-South cooperation in the context of Agenda2030: India's statement]
Trans-Pacific Partnership Ministers: Joint statement (USTR)
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