News
tralac’s Daily News selection: 22 May 2015
The selection: Friday, 22 May
The Heads of State and Government reiterate the importance of the free movement of persons and goods and the Common External Tariff in the consolidation of the common market. It appeals to all Member States to keep constant watch to ensure that all obstacles to free movement are removed. In particular, the Summit urges the Member States yet to do so, to take appropriate measures to implement the CET before the end of 2015. The Authority directs the President of the Commission to expedite measures for the entry into force of the ECOWAS biometric identity card.
In order to promote regional trade and guarantee a competitive environment for investment development, the Authority instructs the Commission to speed up actions for the finalisation and adoption of the common investment code and the investment policy. It further requests that the Commission accelerate the process of finalising the trade policy document. The Authority encourages the Commission in its efforts to foster the establishment of public-private partnerships for financing development in West Africa.
The Authority urges Member States yet to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) to do so as soon as possible with a view to facilitating its implementation.
President Macky Sall is new ECOWAS chairman
ECOWAS Heads endorse eradication of statelessness (GhanaWeb)
Abidjan Declaration of Ministers of ECOWAS Member States on Eradication of Statelessness
Coordinated border management in Africa: Harare conference (AU)
The meeting is held with the objective of contributing to the development of an African Union Border Management Strategy; provide a platform for exchange of views and experiences on issues of trade facilitation in line with the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and movement of people across borders. Mr. Kuzvinzwa (ZRA) highlighted Zimbabwe’s positive experience with the Chirundu One Stop Border Post and informed the meeting that plans are already underway to establish another OSBP at Victoria Falls primarily targeting tourists and business persons.
‘Involve private sector in border management’ (NewsDay)
New Agoa deal expects more of SA but offers less, says Davies (Business Day)
New conditions attached to the US’s African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa) and changes in US trade policy would reduce the value of the measure for SA while raising its costs, Trade and Industry Rob Davies said on Thursday. This is the first time Mr Davies has expressed disillusionment over the way the renewal of the act, which expires at the end of September, has been used to extract concessions from SA. He said he would raise the matter in the Cabinet shortly.
Davies upbeat over US talks in Paris (Business Report)
US firms blast SA security law (Business Report)
Ministries discuss trade implications of private security Bill (EWN)
Intra-SACU trade relationships and related issues (tralac)
Much of the focus of South Africa’s trading relationship with BLNS countries is on the SACU revenue-sharing formula, a formula which is based entirely upon one side and one side only of this relationship. The SACU tariff revenue pool is divided on the basis of intra-SACU imports. These imports are dominated by BLNS imports from South Africa. The objective of this paper is to analyse the South African Customs Union (SACU) trading relationship and briefly discuss the tariff revenue-sharing formula before going further and examining the implications of interrelated themes in terms of regional development.
SADC Trade in Services negotiations and the development of sector specific annexes (tralac)
However, it is the Member States’ commitment to regulatory, administrative and institutional reforms that is receiving very little attention at this stage of the negotiations. It is arguably due to a lack of attention to these matters that the negotiations are progressing at lacklustre speed and disappointing levels of ambition.
SADC regulators urged to strengthen links (National Biotechnology Authority, Zimbabwe)
SADC countries must strengthen the links between national biosafety regulatory authorities to enhance the region’s capacity to manage and handle the potential risks associated with genetically modified organisms (GMO) products, a Government official says. Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Deputy Minister Dr Godfrey Gandawa told delegates at a regional biosafety training workshop held recently in Harare that strengthening linkages would help Sadc countries to manage biotechnology products given the fact that the countries share common borders across which goods and services move.
SADC: briefing notes by Dr SL Tax
The Secretariat briefed the Chairperson [President Mugabe] on steps being undertaken in preparing an action plan and a coordinated mechanism for the implementation of the Industrialisation Strategy going forward, as an integral part of the implementation of the revised RISDP, SADC’s blue print for development, to ensure tangible outcomes for the benefit of SADC citizens. The Secretariat also engaged the Chairperson on challenges that it is facing with the view to address them through the various policy organs of SADC. The Chairperson mandated the Chair of the Council of Ministers to address the challenges identified, including improvement of conditions of service of staff, and align them to other regional bodies.
Namibia: Informal traders export goods worth millions (New Era)
In addition to the N$64.5 billion worth of goods that Namibia exported last year, is the N$12.258 million worth of goods exported by the often-ignored informal traders commonly seen at various border posts with huge loads of goods on bicycles and wheelbarrows. In a maiden survey of only six border posts, the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) found that informal traders export goods worth millions but are not captured formally because the trade figures are below the Customs and Excise threshold for recording. The survey was conducted at Ariamsvlei, Noordoewer, Omahenene, Oshikango, Wenela and Calai border posts.
Zimbabwe: Retailers cry foul over vendors (The Herald)
Retailers have pleaded with Government to protect them from unfair competition posed by influx of inferior imported products, address problems faced by street vendors and deal with serious challenges they pose for formal business. The retailers made the plea when highlighting the cocktail of problems they want Government and its regulatory arms to address to save their businesses from potential collapse.
Ethiopia’s economy expected to grow by 9.5% (Reuters)
Ethiopia's economy is expected to grow by 9.5 percent this fiscal year ending June before accelerating to 10.5 percent in 2015/16, the World Bank said on Friday, adding inflation will remain in single digits during this period.
Tanzania: Current account deficit narrows by 16% (The Citizen)
The current account balance narrowed by 15.8% to a deficit of $4.295 billion in the year ending March 2015 compared with $5.102 billion recorded previously, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has reported. It said in its economic review for April that the improvement was mainly on account of an increase in exports of goods and services coupled with a decrease in imports of both goods and services. However, according to BoT, capital and financial account balances deteriorated, leading to the worsening of the overall balance of payments to a deficit of $460.2 million compared with a surplus of $192.2 million recorded in the corresponding period in 2014. [Download the monthly review]
Mbeki calls for money control (The Citizen)
Former president Thabo Mbeki said there was a need to strengthen the “legal and regulatory framework” to be able to deal with the problem of illicit financial outflows from Africa. Mbeki said countries such as Nigeria and South Africa should have the necessary legislation to be able to deal with the problem properly. “It is necessary for the countries to have the legislative framework which enables them to act to identify resources without impacting negatively on what will be normal and desirable econo-mic integration on the continent,” Mbeki said yesterday at the Pan African Parliament (PAP) ordinary session in Midrand, north of Johannesburg. [Download the speech]
Misgivings over DBSA loan (The Herald)
Government has formally engaged the Development Bank of Southern Africa for a $500 million loan to recapitalise the National Railways of Zimbabwe, the National Assembly has heard. Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Obert Mpofu said Government will, however, continue to cast its net wide and court other investors because it is concerned with the cost of the DBSA loan. “Government has directed that even as we consider the DBSA package, we also step up efforts at any other options available, particularly from China,” he said.
Atlas of Africa’s energy potential (AfDB)
The overall objective of the Atlas is to graphically illustrate where the energy resources are, where the potential for expansion exists and possible impacts on the environment. It will provide visual information on the challenges and opportunities to providing Africa’s population access to reliable, affordable and modern energy services. The tasks to be carried out over a period of eight month, as part of the assignment include the following activities:
Innovation as a driver for sustainable development (UNDP)
The UNDP’s Innovation Facility has launched its Annual Review for 2014(link is external), showing why innovation is becoming increasingly important in international development and for UNDP itself. The Innovation Facility report finds that it was only together with entrepreneurial partners and by engaging people affected by development challenges that UNDP can find the next generation of catalytic solutions and reach the targets of the Post-2015 agenda.
Why East Africa tops regional mobile financial services (Business Daily)
There is an ongoing battle in sub-Saharan Africa, known as the convergence battle, to bridge a widening gap between mobile cellular penetration and access to financial services. While the former is almost hitting 70 per cent, the latter remains low at about 25 per cent of the adult population, according to IFC’s Global Financial Inclusion Survey. At the moment, East Africa seems to be winning the battle, as evidenced by two key indicators.
Harnessing digital trade for competitiveness and development: conference summary (World Bank)
The World Bank Group hosted some of the pioneers in this space for a full-day conference on Harnessing Digital Trade for Competitiveness and Development on May 19. Here, we heard entrepreneurial success stories—an online platform for jewelry in Kenya, a provider of software solutions in Nepal, an online platform for livestock trade in Serbia—and dove into the constraints and challenges of running a digital business in an emerging economy.
Development co-operation by countries beyond the DAC (OECD)
This issues brief, available to download in pdf format only, explains how the DAC has been engaging with providers of development co-operation beyond its membership - especially in the field of statistics - and gives an overview of their development co-operation flows. It also proposes greater collaboration among all bilateral providers to complete the picture of international development co-operation. The total gross development co-operation provided by 27 countries beyond the DAC reached USD 23.5 billion in 2013, up from USD 11.4 billion in 2010 (Table 2). As a percentage of total global development co-operation, this represented between 7% and 9% in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and increased to 13% in 2013.
President Mahama opens Oxford Africa conference today (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation)
Botswana: Farmers call for new beef markets (Daily News)
Luanda hosts Okavango River Basin Water Commission meeting (AngolaPress)
African peer review system fading fast (IOL)
Xenophobia increasingly regional (Zimbabwe Independent)
SE4All Action Agendas set stage for mobilizing investment in sustainable energy in Africa (AfDB)
This post has been sourced on behalf of tralac and disseminated to enhance trade policy knowledge and debate. It is distributed to over 300 recipients across Africa and internationally, serving in the AU, RECS, national government trade departments and research and development agencies. Your feedback is most welcome. Any suggestions that our recipients might have of items for inclusion are most welcome. Richard Humphries (Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Twitter: @richardhumphri1)
