News
tralac’s Daily News Selection
The selection: Friday, 3 June 2016
Featured tweet, by @sdonnan: I’m heading to London next week for our inaugural @FT World Trade Symposium. The hip place to be for trade wonks...
Featured infographic, by @Marcel_Vernooij: Intra-regional trade in West Africa ECOWAS is 8% of total trade of the region and declining. See country figures:
SADC aims to tackle cross-border cartels (Mmegi)
The prevalence of cross-border competition problems has compelled competition authorities in the SADC region to cooperate in the enforcement of competition laws. This was testified by the recent signing of a MOU in Gaborone by competition authorities in the region. Senior programme officer of trade at the SADC Secretariat, Jabulani Mthethwa said: “This MOU comes at an opportune time when SADC has adopted an industrialisation strategy and roadmap, which among other objectives promotes the creation of sustainable regional value chains. Competition authorities will be expected to play a pivotal role in the development and implementation of these regional value chains by ensuring that a conducive business environment for cross-border investments exists,” said Mthethwa.
Mozambique: Tax legislation to facilitate trade (SPEED)
One of the constraints affecting international businesses is access to tax legislation in English. To facilitate access to this legislation SPEED and the Tax Authority have once again partnered to prepare a range of key tax codes and subordinate legislation in English for companies interested in investing in and trading with Mozambique. [Various downloads available)
Kenya, Turkey in $1bn trade agreement (Footprint2Africa)
Kenya and Turkey have set a target to grow bilateral trade between them to $1 billion, through innovative business models such as Buy, Operate and Transfer and Public Private Sector Partnerships, within the next five years. “The trade between our countries stands at $144m and this is insignificant. President Kenyatta and I have set a target for the future and we said let us lift this figure to the $1 billion mark,” said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
East African Community Vision 2050 (pdf, EAC)
The implementation of Vision 2050 will be based on periodic concentrations of 5 year segments beginning with 2016/17 – 2020/21 which will address specific aspects of the Vision. Regular reviews will be conducted during the implementation of the Vision to identify changes that may be necessary in order to proactively remain on track. This will be buttressed with a systematic monitoring and evaluation frameworks which will continuously generate feedback and necessary remedial actions to ensure that implementation is consistently on track.
EALA calls for a regional urban policy for the EAC (EAC)
The Assembly is urging the EAC Council of Ministers to develop a regional urban planning policy for the bloc to have better co-ordinated cities and cross-border towns and put in place remedial measures to disasters. In order to harmonise ideas and have a regional position on Habitat 111 agenda, the Assembly has urged the Council through the EAC Secretariat to convene a regional position on habitat matters. “Large concentrations of people and goods providing for increased opportunities for creativity, larger labor markets, and higher levels of productivity, not to speak of the cultural and political opportunities associated with urban life is the norm” a section of the Resolution states. [Related, High Level Policy Dialogue: Integrating urbanization in national development planning in Africa, 7-9 June, Yaoundé (UNECA)]
New push for Kiswahili to become EAC official language (IPPMedia)
Despite the fact that Kiswahili is spoken by over 100 million people in east, central and southern Africa, the Arusha-headquartered EAC does not recognise it as an official language. Interestingly, the African Union, which is headquartered in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, recognises Kiswahili as one of its official languages. "On Kiswahili, many people we spoke to wanted to see it also accommodated in EAC as an additional official language. According to the Treaty for the establishment of EAC, English is the official language in EAC," Bhanji said at a meeting of EALA in Arusha this week. [EAC retains top brass fat pay despite Magufuli austerity call (Business Daily)]
Why East and West Africans are in favour of integration, and others aren't (The Conversation)
Support for integration is highest in West and East Africa. These regions are home to countries that have made significant progress towards facilitating visa openness and free movement. These include such initiatives as regional passports. This suggests that national support for cooperative and integrative agreements can affect public opinion. Still, a significant proportion of African citizens don’t know enough about the institutions promoting integration. This affects their ability to rate their helpfulness to their own countries. [The author: Rorisang Lekalake]
Mukhisa Kituyi: 'Africa must set itself higher targets to get ahead' (Business Daily)
There are two sides. First of all, Africa must talk with itself but also talk with the rest of the world. We relate with the rest of the world. We talk about what can be done in policy terms but also how we can encourage greater investment in the world. Having said that, it is true that Africa has surrendered space to the World Economic Forum, which is a Geneva-based NGO. We have failed to create a forum where African academia, civil society, government and private enterprises talk together about what our challenges are. How can we raise the ceiling? How can we find synergies in our policy coherence between governments? That discourse is possible without having to go through a Geneva-based NGO, but we haven’t developed it. So WEF has moved into a space which Africa has not created to itself.
African countries hold second CFTA Negotiating Forum (Bridges Africa)
The unit [in the AU's department of trade and industry] will support member states by providing technical and negotiating assistance to countries that may need it during the course of the CFTA negotiating process. It will also provide secretarial and technical support to the various meetings at all levels of the CFTA negotiations machinery. This CFTA support unit has however not reached its full-fledged capacity yet. When fully operational, it is expected to have 14 highly qualified dedicated experts, among which six are expected to start assuming their duties by this month.
Rwanda tops Africa in Prosperity Index (New Times)
Rwanda has been listed as the most improved country in the 2016 Africa Prosperity report (pdf) by a UK-based think tank, Legatum Institute. “Rwanda is perhaps the best known reform story from the continent, taking itself from a broken post-Genocide nation, to Africa’s 8th most prosperous county,” the report reads in part. South Africa, Botswana and Morocco took the first, second and third positions on the continent, respectively.
Extract: Rwanda has the biggest ‘Prosperity Surplus’ in Africa. Even though its GDP per capita is $1661, it came top of the rankings due to the significant reforms it has made recently to strengthen the rule of law and reduce corruption. Interestingly, other large surpluses are found in Senegal and Burkina Faso, driven by over-achievement in Personal Freedom and Governance. Central African Republic has the biggest ‘Prosperity Deficit’ in Africa. Its GDP per capita is a measly $594 and it has one of the lowest overall records of prosperity in the world. Angola is significantly under-achieving. While it is one of the wealthier countries in Africa (GDP per capita of $6949), its over-reliance on one industry (oil) and its high unemployment rate and track record on civil liberties means it ranked just below Central African Republic as the second worst performing country. As falling commodity prices hit growth forecasts across the continent, this year’s report considers the legacy of prosperity delivery in Africa given a decade of strong growth.
Willemien Viljoen: South Africa’s competitiveness and the role of declining international trade (tralac)
On 30 May 2016 the IMD World Competitiveness Centre released its World Competitiveness Yearbook. The IMD evaluates 61 countries, as places to conduct business, taking into account over 300 criteria which measures competitiveness. South Africa is the only African country included in the assessment.
Revised DAC Global Relations Strategy (pdf, OECD)
This global relations strategy will guide the work of the DAC and its subsidiary bodies to engage with non-member economies, whether or not they are members of the OECD, and other development stakeholders to improve the quality, relevance and impact of the Committee’s work. Its overall objectives are:
Related: OECD's Global Economic Outlook, Country notes, including South Africa, 2016 Ministerial Council statement: enhancing productivity for inclusive growth (pdf)
Africa’s new railways risk going the way of the old ones (The Economist)
Over the past half-century, Africa’s mostly colonial railways have mostly atrophied. According to the International Union of Railways, in 2014 sub-Saharan African trains carried about 158 billion tonne-kilometres of freight, or roughly half of what Australia’s railways carried. Of that, 84% was in South Africa, which has a modern network. Elsewhere, railways that built nations carry a fraction of what they did even in the 1980s. To remedy this, many African countries are investing vast sums of money—and hope—in new lines.
Northern Corridor Performance Dashboard Outline: January-March 2016 (pdf)
Uganda to benefit from Shs337b cross border trade funding (Daily Monitor)
Uganda will benefit from another round of funding to improve cross border trade with regional countries, the chief executive officer Trademark East Africa (TMEA), Mr Frank Matsaert, has revealed. The new funding, will among other things, be directed towards facilitating trade with South Sudan, Uganda’s biggest export market. “We will be looking to do a border post at Nimule-Elegu for the country and also focus on Gulu logistic hub, put a lot of work into standards, addressing non-tariff barriers, and automation of trade processes particularly the single window and finally will also focus resources in certain key parts of Uganda to create jobs,” Mr Matsaert said.
Is the (developing) world ready for the new container weight regulations? (World Bank Blogs)
A major change in the way containers’ weight is measured and certified, is fast approaching. As of July 1, 2016, all shipping containers will be required to verify their gross mass before they can be loaded onto a vessel. Previously, shippers could accept weight estimates, but now shippers are responsible for weighing cargo, prior to loading. The fact that several developed countries still struggle to adopt enactment provisions and guidelines, indicates the complexity of compliance and the readiness of the developing world to properly implement SOLAS rules.
Trade regulation in a 3D printed world: a primer (pdf, National Board of Trade, Sweden)
Two questions arise: How does the spread of 3DP change how companies trade and what they trade? Is WTO equipped to regulate production using 3D technology and trade with 3D-printed products?
Delivering Aid for Trade: the CEB Inter-Agency Cluster on Trade and Productive Capacity (pdf, UNCTAD)
The Inter-Agency Cluster’s best practices in coordinating technical assistance have proven to be useful in enhancing impact at the country level through an integrated and coherent vision of assistance needs and better alignment with national priorities. The Cluster is showing concrete results in “Delivering as one” countries with an implementation record that is ranked highly in the monitoring and evaluation systems in place at the country level. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development should be the road map and driving force for further progress in the delivery of United Nations joint programmes of development assistance. The Inter-Agency Cluster has a promising role in implementing this agenda.
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