News

tralac’s website is updated every weekday with trade and trade law related news stories relevant to the southern and eastern African region. Scroll down to browse through these news items. tralac also publishes a weekly electronic newsletter which contains news, commentary and links to current trade data, and highlights recent and forthcoming events and publications. Click here to subscribe to our weekly e-Newsletter. All views and opinions expressed in these items remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

SADC needs more teeth

Posted on Friday, May 24th, 2013 by !Hoaës, Irene (New Era, Windhoek) in News

The regional meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Council of Non-Government Organisations wants the authority of the SADC Secretariat to be strengthened to make it more responsive and decisive in its actions. The meeting also called for the re-enactment of the SADC Tribunal, saying there is urgent need for such a body in [...]

Read more...

Lamy urges EU to forge closer trade ties with Africa

Posted on Friday, May 24th, 2013 by EurActiv.com in News

A week after pressing Europe to boost its trade ties with Africa in Brussels, the World Trade Organisation’s chief said in Nairobi that leading European economies should look at developing and low income countries as the new globe’s economic growth engine, at a time of decreasing development aid. Pascal Lamy, the former European Union trade commission [...]

Read more...

Poultry group denies tariff would cause steep price rises

Posted on Friday, May 24th, 2013 by Visser, Amanda (BDlive) in News

The South African Poultry Association (Sapa) insists that its request for safeguards against cheap frozen chicken meat imports will not raise prices beyond 10% and 15% from current prices, denying claims of increases of up to 50%. In March, the association brought an application before the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac), arguing for an increase [...]

Read more...

CDE urges SA to lure relocating Chinese labour-intensive industries

Posted on Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 by Engineering News Online in News

Special economic zones (SEZs) can help South Africa deal with its unemployment challenge by attracting jobs that China and other Asian nations will shed as they relocate some of their labour-intensive industries owing to rising costs, Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) executive director Ann Bernstein told the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, in Cape Town, [...]

Read more...

Severe lack of supply chain skills ‘hindering trade for SA’

Posted on Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 by Anderson, Alistair (BDlive) in News

There is a severe shortage of supply chain skills in South Africa, the University of Johannesburg’s 2012 Supply Chain Skills Gap Survey, released on Tuesday, showed. “Research shows the supply chain skills gap has widened considerably, even over a short time span, severely impacting the competitiveness of the South African economy,” researchers Rose Luke and [...]

Read more...

China, India seek to create new economic engine

Posted on Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 by Xinhua, Beijing in News

China and India, both with a billion-plus population and emerging as the world’s two rising powers, are seeking to join efforts to create a new engine of the global economy. “I am confident that we will view bilateral relations from a strategic height…, jointly nurture new bright spots in cooperation among Asian countries, and create [...]

Read more...

Tanzania could boost its economy by reforming the Port of Dar es Salaam – World Bank

Posted on Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013 by World Bank, Dar es Salaam in News

Tanzania and its East African neighbors could boost their annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by up to US$1.8 billion and US$ 830 million respectively by taking measures to improve the efficiency of the Port of Dar es Salaam, according to the latest Tanzania Economic Update published by the World Bank. So far, Tanzania and six [...]

Read more...

Africa should put basics in place

Posted on Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013 by Kazondovi, Lorraine (New Era, Windhoek) in News

The Governor of the Bank of Namibia, Ipumbu Shiimi, says although the goal of Africa to share a common currency is sound – the basics such as road and other infrastructure need to be addressed first. His remarks follow a call by Founding President and Father of the Namibian Nation, Dr Sam Nujoma, for a single African [...]

Read more...

AU official urges member states to pursue continental integration

Posted on Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013 by African Manager, Addis Ababa in News

Member states of the African Union (AU) and political leaders must muster political will to surrender part of their sovereignty over trade, economic and financial issues to regional and continental supranational organisations because the continent must be fully integrated in the coming 50 years, a senior AU official said here Monday. “African countries should think [...]

Read more...

Are politics shackling the private sector in Africa’s development?

Posted on Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 by Christos, Tessema (US-Africa Gateway) in News

The challenge to find an enabling environment for investments thus, economic development remains illusive in most African countries. In the last century, the attempt to find the right balance failed to bring about the desired result. Record expenditure in development assistance through governments and non-government organizations didn’t make much of a dent. The private sector [...]

Read more...

Zuma, Putin push for increased trade

Posted on Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 by SouthAfrica.info in News

South African President Jacob Zuma and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the strengthening of economic ties and expansion of trade between the two BRICS partners during their meeting in Sochi, Russia on Thursday. According to The Voice of Russia, Putin told journalists after the meeting that trade between Russia and South Africa had increased by [...]

Read more...

Developing African infrastructure for the continent’s structural transformation

Posted on Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 by African Development Bank, Tunis in News

Across Africa, investments in physical and social infrastructure have failed to keep pace with growth and demand, creating a serious infrastructure deficit that slows investment, the achievement of broad-based and inclusive growth, and poverty reduction. The figures are revealing. More than half of the countries in Africa suffer chronic power outages, stifling industrialization and other [...]

Read more...

The African Union can do more to support regional integration

Posted on Monday, May 20th, 2013 by Rettig, Michael; Kamau, Anne W.; and Muluvi, Augustus Sammy (Brookings Up Front) in News

Earlier this May in Cape Town, South Africa, economists at the World Economic Forum reaffirmed that regional integration will play a key role in unleashing the continent’s growth potential. More than 10 regional economic communities (RECs) are working toward this goal in Africa, but the main framework behind this effort is the African Economic Community (AEC). The [...]

Read more...

Commonwealth makes case for small, vulnerable countries at G20 meeting in Moscow

Posted on Monday, May 20th, 2013 by Commonwealth Secretariat, London in News

The G20 group of the world’s leading economies should deepen consideration of the development concerns of small, poor and vulnerable economies in their efforts to promote equitable and sustainable economic growth. Dr Cyrus Rustomjee, Director of the Economic Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat, told a meeting of the G20 Development Working Group that in [...]

Read more...

Sino-Egyptian economic zone attracts more investment

Posted on Monday, May 20th, 2013 by Xinhua, Tianjin in News

To boost investment in a Sino-Egyptian joint industrial zone, three large Chinese companies will start production there this year. The three firms, Jushi Egypt Fiberglass Industry, XD High Voltage Equipment Company and Muyang Egypt Industry, will bring a total investment of more than 400 million U.S. dollars this year, said Liu Aimin, general manager of [...]

Read more...

Developing world’s share of global investment to triple by 2030, says new World Bank Report

Posted on Friday, May 17th, 2013 by World Bank, Washington in News

Seventeen years from now, half the global stock of capital, totaling $158 trillion (in 2010 dollars), will reside in the developing world, compared to less than one-third today, with countries in East Asia and Latin America accounting for the largest shares of this stock, says the latest edition of the World Bank’s Global Development Horizons [...]

Read more...

SA must shift to ‘manufacturing economy’, not ‘knowledge economy’ – Merseta

Posted on Friday, May 17th, 2013 by Esterhuizen, Idéle (Engineering News Online) in News

Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Education and Training Authority (Merseta) CEO Raymond Patel on Thursday challenged government’s National Development Plan (NDP) vision of shifting South Africa’s economy to be more knowledge-based by suggesting the move should rather be to a more manufacturing-based economy, which he viewed as the best way to achieve growth in the country. “We [...]

Read more...

Intra-African trade: A first step to a continental free trade zone

Posted on Friday, May 17th, 2013 by Frimpong, Paul (The Foreign Report) in News

Africa is touted as the continent of opportunities, where there are endless resources available for economic growth and transformation. But for Africa to take its rightful position in the world’s global economy, then it must dream of becoming borderless in terms of doing business. If the continent can create a single economic space, eliminating the [...]

Read more...

TOP ↑