Local news

Zimbabwe Sanctions | Activists denounce new sanction regime (ENCA)

HARARE - The United States has slapped new targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe.

This is despite calls by President Cyril Ramaphosa and other SADC leaders to scrap them.

This time, the Biden Administration is targetting people and companies including President Emmerson Mnangagwa's son.

South Africa 2022 wheat harvest forecast 1.6% lower than last year (Engineering News)

South African farmers are expected to harvest 1.6% less wheat in the 2022 season compared with the previous season, the government's Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said on Wednesday.

The CEC's fifth winter wheat crop forecast estimates the 2022 wheat harvest at 2.249-million tonnes, down from the 2.285-million tonnes harvested last year.

Nigeria Must Break Bottlenecks and Barriers to Access AfCFTA $3.4 Trillion, Company Boss Says (Legit.ng)

The Chief Operating Officer of MicCom Cables and Wires, Bukola Adubi said this while featuring on a pane at the 2022 Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) Forum in Uyo, in Akwa Ibom.

"Ideally, AfCFTA should be fantastic for us as a country. For cable industry, we are seen as one of the industries in Nigeria already set up exceptionally well. If you ask anyone, they will tell you that made-in-Nigeria cables are fantastic.”

She praised the AfCFTA agreement but expressed fear that it may not work because of issues around tariffs and government policies, citing the failure of the ECOWAS trade liberalization scheme as an example.

Kenya pushes for ban on radioactive waste imports (Business Daily Africa)

The Kenyan government has renewed a push to ban the importation of hazardous materials, including radioactive waste into the country, in line with a continental pact to protect Africa’s borders from becoming a dumpsite for global manufacturers.

This is after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked the National Assembly to ratify the Bamako Convention, which bans the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes.

The convention, which was adopted under the auspices of the Organisation of African Unity in 1991 (now African Union) and came into force in 1998, imposes an obligation of State parties to ban the importation into, and transit through, their territory, of hazardous wastes and substances for human health and environmental reasons.

Nigeria: AfCFTA targets $12bn trade in 4 years –Experts (The Sun)

Stakeholders have said the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) has the potential to grow trade value in Nigeria to the tune of $12 billion by 2027. This was disclosed during the Nigeria AfCFTA implementation strategy validation in Lagos, where they said the agreement could also reduce trade cost by 20 per cent by facilitating the enactment of an omnibus bill on the AfCFTA.

In his remarks, Senior Advisor in the Regional Integration and Trade Division (RITD) of Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr. Adeyinka Adeyemi, highlighted that the ECA, through its African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) has been working with member states to deepen Africa’s trade integration and effectively implement the agreement through policy advocacy and national strategy development.

“Nigeria has demonstrated high commitment to the implementation of AfCFTA,” Adeyemi noted, adding, “it is my conviction that the feedback from the workshop will further enrich the strategy and form the basis for an upgraded document for the Government’s consideration and eventual adoption.”

Republic of Congo President Hopeful After US-Africa Leaders Summit (VOA News)

Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso says significant developments came out of this year’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington.

In an interview with VOA this week, Sassou Nguesso said that during this summit, the goals were more defined, including helping the African Union gain a greater voice at the United Nations.

“For example, President [Joe] Biden declared that Africa [African Union] is certainly going to be a member of the G-20. I believe this is a clear orientation that we appreciate. Mr. Biden also declared that in the next few years, America is going to get involved with Africa [the African Union] finding its right place at the Security Council of the United Nations as a permanent member," he said in French.

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African trade and integration

Nigeria, Germany Agree to Deepen Bilateral Ties as Germany Returns 22 Benin Bronzes (Arise News)

Nigeria and Germany have both agreed to deepen their bilateral ties, meet the energy transition target, tackle climate crises and strengthen collaborations across all sectors.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama and his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock revealed this on Tuesday moments after some 22 historic bronze sculptures were returned by the European country to Nigeria.

Onyeama, speaking during a bilateral meeting in Abuja, said that strengthening bilateral ties, people-to people relations, strengthening partnership in the energy, economic sectors, tackling climate change, insecurity, strengthen collaborations across all sectors were the focus of the bilateral meeting.

Africa accounts for only 2.4% of global GDP, says ECOWAS (The Sun)

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) yesterday, said that Africa accounts for only 2.4 per cent of global Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and that the continent has approximately 30 per cent of the earth’s remaining mineral resources.

In his presentation at a one-day workshop for journalists, organised by AfCFTA in Abuja, a consultant to the ECOWAS Common Investment Market (ECIM), Professor Jonathan Aremu added that Africa also has the largest reserves of precious metals with over 40 per cent of the gold reserves, over 60 per cent of cobalt and 90 per cent of platinum reserves.

To this extent, African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the first in the series of the African Economic Community (AEC) economic integration initiative, provides an opportunity for expanded market for goods and services for Nigerians by building on progress achieved through similar Free Trade Area (FTA).

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Global economy

High food prices and strong US dollar are ‘double burden’ for developing countries, UNCTAD says (UNCTAD)

Food prices have hit record levels in 2022, creating challenges for food security worldwide, especially for people in the developing countries that import most of their food.

An index published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) tracking the prices of the most traded food commodities remained at historically high levels in November (135.7 points) after reaching an all-time high in March (159.3 points).

Although the world has suffered food crises in the past, the current one, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, is different, a new UNCTAD report says, because of a stronger US dollar.

Algorithmic Trading Global Market Report 2022: Ukraine-Russia War Impact (Yahoo Finance)

New York, Dec. 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Algorithmic Trading Global Market Report 2022: Ukraine-Russia War Impact" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06374654/?utm_source=GNW

The global algorithmic trading market is expected to grow from $14.13 billion in 2021 to $15.93 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.7%. The Russia-Ukraine war disrupted the chances of global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, at least in the short term. The war between these two countries has led to economic sanctions on multiple countries, surge in commodity prices, and supply chain disruptions, effecting many markets across the globe. The algorithmic trading market is expected to reach $24.79 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 11.7%.

The algorithmic trading includes revenues earned by entities by providing automated trading services, financial services, trade executions, system architecture management. The market value includes the value of related goods sold by the service provider or included within the service offering.

WTO issues information note on steel decarbonatization standards, readies for March event (World Trade Organization)

The WTO Secretariat on 21 December published a new information note mapping the proliferation of standards for decarbonizing the steel industry and outlining how the work of the WTO could support harmonization efforts and help prevent trade frictions. The note also underscores the importance of addressing developing countries’ needs with respect to decarbonization standards. It is released ahead of the WTO’s global stakeholder event on steel decarbonization standards to be held on 9 March 2023.

The Secretariat's information note titled "Decarbonization standards and the iron and steel sector: how can the WTO support greater coherence?" indicates that more than 20 different standards and initiatives exist to support steel decarbonization efforts or are under development. This may create uncertainty for producers, increase transaction costs, and risk trade frictions. Further work is needed to enhance the alignment of standards, including by finding areas for further convergence on specific measurement methodologies, definitions and performance thresholds for decarbonization, the note states. It is also crucial to ensure that developing countries' perspectives and challenges are considered and addressed.

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) held last month in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called for greater international cooperation on trade-related climate policies, including decarbonization standards. Achieving global net-zero targets will require consistent and comparable greenhouse gas emissions measurement. However, the proliferation of divergent carbon standards and certifications across countries and sectors risks fragmentation, undermines environmental credibility and creates barriers to trade and investment.

WTO dispute panel issues report regarding US origin marking requirements (World Trade Organization)

On 21 December the WTO circulated the panel report in the case brought by Hong Kong, China in “United States — Origin Marking Requirement” (DS597)

Find the summary of key findings here

Building CO2-neutral, defossilised supply chains for chemicals (European Pharmacological Review)

Manufacturers of (bio)pharmaceuticals, medical devices and in vitro diagnostics have the opportunity to lead the way in the defossilisation of organic chemicals. Here Martin Held from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Roche’s Stefan Koenig, Martin Olbrich and Jan Backmann propose how to reduce the environmental footprint of the pharma industry by establishing a market and infrastructure for the large-scale production of defossilised organic chemicals, benefitting other industries too.

The healthcare industry is successful in innovating new treatment paradigms ranging from small molecular to biological therapeutics to personalised medicines. Over the past quarter century, the industry has increasingly adopted green chemistry practices in a continuing effort to improve process efficiency and reduce its environmental footprint. However, most of these efforts relating to catalysis, process waste metrics, lifecycle assessments, pharmaceuticals in the environment and the phase out of substances of concern mainly mitigate the consequences of pharmaceutical manufacturing. They do not address the underlying issue responsible for global warming, namely that almost all organic chemicals including plastics originate from fossil resources.

Egypt Looks Forward to Arab Industrial Integration (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry Ahmed Samir inaugurated on Tuesday the 13th Kuwait Week Exhibition in Cairo. 

More than 60 major Egyptian and Kuwaiti companies have taken part in the two-day event, which is held under the theme “Kuwait in Egypt” and organized by the Kuwaiti embassy in Cairo and Jabriya Exhibition Group.

Samir said Cairo is keen to bolster economic cooperation and integration among Arab states, which would contribute to achieving food security and launching an industrial system based on exchanging expertise, technologies, and production inputs to reach the level of Arab industrial integration.