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tralac’s Daily News Selection
The selection: Monday, 13 June 2016
Ahead of the ICGLR Summit: ICGLR foreign ministers have endorsed Kenya’s Amb Zachary Muburi-Muita for the post of ICGLR Executive Secretary, says @AMB_A_Mohammed (@NationFMKe)
The AfDB and African civil society: an interview with Mrs Zéneb Touré
Nepad’s Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki: 'Next 10 years critical for Africa’s transformation'
UNDP’s Annual session, 6-10 June 2016: documentation includes country programme documents for Mauritius (2017-2020), South Sudan (July 2016-December 2017)
SA’s Agbiz Congress 2016: download the trade-related presentations
UNECA’s country profiles: downloads
Facilitating trade in ECOWAS: insights from the ITC business surveys on NTM (ITC)
As of mid-2016, six out of the 15 countries in the ECOWAS region have benefited from a national and independent business survey on NTMs. Given the feedback received in each survey and the coverage achieved in the region, it has become clear that there is a need to assess regional integration within ECOWAS. The objective of this analysis is to raise awareness on the business perspectives and experiences on NTM-related issues in order to provide a snapshot of bottlenecks that might hinder trade integration. In terms of the sectors, manufacturing exports appear to be more strongly affected by burdensome NTMs compared to agriculture exports. However, the share of intra-ECOWAS manufacturing export is significantly higher than intra-ECOWAS agricultural exports. This could largely be due to the more homogenous nature of agricultural products and also the fact that the region has similar supply structure and comparative advantage in agricultural production. This strongly suggests that for the ECOWAS to improve its share of intra-regional trade substantially, attention must be directed at increasing manufacturing exports as well as value addition to primary commodities. [Discussion paper prepared for the high-level round table on NTMs, 14-15 June, Abidjan] [No one should be harassed at border posts in West Africa - ECOWAS (The Point)]
AMV and Economic Corridors initiative push for continental growth and development (UNECA)
An annual workshop in Tanzania begins on 20 June 2016 as a next step in the Integrated Resources Corridor Initiative. The IRCI Partnership aims to promote the need for multi-stakeholder, multi-agency and inter-disciplinary collaboration on resource corridor planning and development. It also aims to help decision makers who are considering, planning and implementing economic corridors with the aim to achieve durable development outcomes. [IRCI: scoping and business report (pdf)]
Mapping the cross border, national and regional trade in the East African informal economy (Niti Bhan)
This research [at the Kenya/Uganda border at Busia and Malaba] can be considered only the first layer in understanding the informal trade ecosystem at the borderland, and beyond. National and regional trade in the informal economy is a complex web of interlinked relationships and nodes, enabled by user behaviours and strategies emerging in response to its particular characteristics. Exploratory surveys that form the basis of this case study at the Busia Malaba borderland of Uganda and Kenya offer an introductory overview on generic challenges faced by the borderland traders and their support system, but are insufficient for programme specific strategy development, and pilot implementation. However, since one of the objectives of this exercise was the design of a robust methodology for borderland ecosystem mapping of the East African Community, some generic insights have been synthesized which can be said to apply to all or most of the region. These form the basis of the themes identified for the pilots. These are:
Angola: Trade Policy Framework (UNCTAD)
This study was prepared at the request of the Government of Angola in order to assist the country in elaborating a trade policy framework. The main challenge facing Angola in participating in international trade is the continued over-reliance on exports of one commodity, petroleum, which accounted for 99% of total merchandize exports of $62.4bn in 2014 and manufactured goods accounting for only 0.1 per cent. Rather than shrink, the proportion of exports of primary commodities has increased in the past 20 years.As regards merchandise trade, the study identifies several sectors that could be usefully explored for the country’s export diversification efforts, particularly through accelerated agro-based industries development. These include:
Extract: In 2014, its exports within SADC accounted for only 3% of its global exports, showing that the country is very far from integrating at the regional level. This point is also supported by the fact that its share of total intra-SADC exports declined steeply from about 13% in 2009 to about 5% in 2014 (figure 5).
Botswana: Textile outfit retrenches following Zim imports ban (Mmegi)
Another local textile company has retrenched workers after the Zimbabwean government banned importation of textile products into their country in order to resuscitate their own depressed textile industry. Bolex finance manager, Mohan Pratapa told Mmegi that they have reduced their workforce of about 40 workers to around 20. The main reason for reducing staff and production, Pratapa explained, is due to “poor sales because of the new law implemented in Zimbabwe that bans the imports of blankets for 24 months effective from September 1, 2015”. Pratapa said their woes are also compounded by the fact that their customs agreement with the government does not allow them to sell their blankets in the local market hence their current predicament.
Namibia opens up trade with Mercosur countries (Namibia Economist)
This SACU–Mercosur PTA was concluded 11 years ago but was never implemented until recently due to ratification processes which are purely depended on the national laws of individual countries. Indeed trade agreements such as this one should be embraced from a point of government effort to create alternative market access for the private sector to trade and also to participate in global value chains, especially for a small market like Namibia. Namibia should prioritise the implementation of this agreement by sensitising the private sector and creating awareness of opportunities created by this agreement. The Mercosur countries are quite advanced in industrialisation and Namibia should adopt a clear strategy on how to promote this trade agreement especially in relations to industrialisation. [The author, Maria Lisa Immanuel, is attached to the Namibia Trade Forum]
Boosting Ethio-South Africa trade, investment ties (The Ethiopian Herald)
Recently, the South African business community delegation held discussions with Ethiopian counterparts on potential investment opportunities in Ethiopia aimed at promoting and investing, looking for potential opportunities of exporting, looking for medium and long- terms of investing in Ethiopia. Speaking at business to business discussion, Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Secretarial Associations Secretary General Getachew Regassa said that the current trade and economic relation between Ethiopia and South Africa is not to the satisfactory level. Trade between the two countries during the period of 2011-2015 is worth over $500m. But the trade balance seems to be in favour of South Africa. [SA planning to double tax-free wine exports to EU (Bloomberg)]
India: Exim Bank’s African credit to boost services exports (The Hindu)
The country’s premier export finance institution Exim Bank, which is looking to disburse $10bn to Africa in the next three years, wants the credit which has a mix of concessional and commercial rates to be used for boosting India’s services exports to that continent. This is a shift from Exim Bank’s credit disbursal strategy to Africa — which was mainly to help build infrastructure and industrial projects. “Infrastructure building is something that China has been doing in Africa. With its huge financial resources, China probably has greater capacity to do it than India,” said Exim Bank Chairman and Managing Director, Yaduvendra Mathur. “India’s strength is in services, especially in sectors such as healthcare, information technology, education and even agriculture-related services. So we want to help in increasing India’s services exports to Africa.”
Ink trade agreements with Africa, Latin America to push automobile exports: India's auto industry (DNA India)
With automobile exports in slow lane, the industry has asked the government to aggressively pursue FTAs with nations in Africa, Latin America and Asean region that do not have strong manufacturing base, besides asking for enhanced duty drawbacks. Proposing a list of interventions that can help rev up automobile exports, the industry has asked the Commerce Ministry to adopt a holistic approach to address tariff and non tariff barriers in the potential export markets of Africa, Latin America, Asean and Saarc countries. In Africa, FTAs should be pursued with Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, while in Latin America the government should try to pursue FTAs with Chile, Peru and Colombia, it said. Of the total automobile exports of around $8.86 billion (nearly Rs 58,943.3 crore) in 2015-16, Africa alone accounted for 30-35% of the total overseas shipments in value terms.
African tax experts deliberate on cross-border tax evasion: ATAF conference update (GhanaWeb)
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the ATAF consultative meeting of African competent authorities on exchange of information, the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Mr George Blankson, said a way to plug the loopholes was for “tax authorities to take advantage of international cooperation based on the proper implementation of international standards of transparency and effective information sharing.” The three-day meeting, which has brought together 11-participating countries out of the 36-member organisation, also have the participants discussing issues, including how to operate exchange of information in an effective manner, while respecting taxpayers’ rights to confidentiality and the benefit for ATAF members in utilising the ATAF Exchange of Information Programme.
A review of East Africa's Budget Week: 'Push for local manufacturing to hurt East Africa integration' (The East African)
East African governments want to implement taxation measures that will see them make good their promise to promote local manufacturing and reduce importation of goods, particularly second-hand clothes and shoes.
Kenya: Sound policies key to unlocking Kenya’s mining potential (Business Daily)
Globally, the mining industry has been hit hard by the slump in commodity prices.How can Kenya’s mining industry become attractive in these difficult times? There is need to develop a strategy that makes the country attractive and conducive for exploration companies to thrive. [The author, Tina Nduta, is the founder of Eimara Africa Resources]
Rwanda: Incentives drive investments up $5 billion in five years (New Times)
Incentives provided in priority development areas have in the last five years facilitated the growth of investments in the sectors to about $4.8 billion, according to statistics from Rwanda Development Board. Infrastructure investments in water and energy made up the largest sum of investments at about $1.1 billion and about 2,627 jobs created. The service sector was second at about $690 million and ICT sector third with investments totaling about $620 million during the same period.
Daunting challenges facing Nigeria’s leather (Leadership)
According to findings by LEADERSHIP Weekend, over 45 million skins of animals are processed annually by tanneries in Nigeria, all of them located in Kano. Of these processed skins, about 30% are imported into Nigeria from neighbouring West, East and North Africa. This importation is encouraged by the price skin fetches in Nigeria. This huge informal market has its centre in Kano and it makes the Nigeria leather industry one of the most important and the largest in West Africa. The sector is also believed to be the largest contributor of foreign exchange to Nigeria after oil, except in 2009 when it was moved to second place next to cocoa. Even this was reversed in 2010 when international trade in leather hit USD3bn. In spite of this advantage of availability of the major raw materials (leather), the Finished Leather Goods (FLGs) sector is practically struggling, under-developed and producing poor finished products. The shoe industry which dominates this sector is being out played in the market by imported Chinese shoes. Currently, Chinese imports take over 80% of the domestic market share, while the high-end European and Moroccan shoes take 10%, and the local producers have the remaining 10%. Import from China is conservatively put at 30 million pairs of shoes annually. But the industry argues that it is over twice this number. [Rwanda’s textile, leather industry players push for skills development (New Times)]
Zimbabwe: President urges Chinese to bank (The Herald)
Central Africa: Calls for structural transformation make inroads (UNECA)
At the WTO: Chair seeks to “revitalize” TRIPS Council discussions on intellectual property
New IMF Working Paper: The impact of trade agreements - new approach, new insights
David Lipton: speech to the China Economic Society Conference
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