News
tralac’s Daily News selection: 28 May 2015
The selection: Thursday, 28 May
Today in Abidjan: the election of the next President of the African Development Bank
AfDB scaled up project funding by 15% to US$ 7.6bn in 2014 (AfDB)
According to the Annual Report, a compendium of the Bank’s activities in 2014 and its operations programme for 2015 released Wednesday, May 27 at the AfDB’s Annual Meetings in Abidjan, infrastructure projects (in energy, transport, and water and sanitation) were accorded priority over the four other operational domains – regional integration, private sector development, skills and technology, and governance and accountability.
The Bank’s other funding approvals for the year were channelled to the finance sector which accounted for 17.9 percent of the loans allocated to the continent’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in order to ease their financing constraints and promote financial inclusion. Agriculture, which accounted for 10.8 percent of the loans and grants, focused on enhancing food security and raising productivity. The social sector received 8.3 percent of all approvals, with skills development, technological innovation, and improvement of health-care service delivery as key beneficiaries. [Download]
AU agency targets $18bn infrastructure projects (NewsDay)
African Ecological Futures 2015 report is posted (AfDB)
Some SADC-related policy processes:
The role of railway transportation for sustainable economic, development in Southern Africa: SARA conference theme
ICRC and SADC sign memorandum of understanding (SADC)
Countdown to the launch of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (COMESA)
The advance teams will start arriving at the venue from 5th June 2015 for the technical meetings that will prepare the ground for the launch. The Tripartite Committee of Senior Officials and the Council of Ministers will be part of the advance team and their pre-launch meetings will take place on 7 and 8 June respectively. They will prepare the launch documents including the Tripartite Free Trade Area Agreement, the Declaration launching Phase II of the negotiations for the TFTA and the Roadmap. The Tripartite Heads of State and Government will append their signatures on the documents on 10 June 2015 and thereafter issue a Communique.
Nyusi: 'No African common market without peace and stability' (The Zimbabwean)
Research takes its place in regional integration (COMESA)
The COMESA Secretariat will convene a meeting of the policy think tanks and private sector in the region to brief them on the frontier issues for research necessary to support regional integration. This follows the COMESA Council of Ministers directive issued during its 34th meeting held in Addis Ababa. The decision of the Council was informed by critical studies that the COMESA Research Programme (CRP) has conducted in the past one year and whose findings have potentially high impact on policy and decision making. The first one was an audit of the existing non-tariff barriers among COMESA Member States and assessment of their impact and another on intra-COMESA Trade. The second was on Intra-COMESA trade potential analysis which revealed that COMESA has a potential to increase its trade by US $96.7 billion.
Picture Trade: How we can visualize intra-regional trade in South Asia and beyond (World Bank)
Intra-regional trade constitutes less than 5% of total trade in South Asia, according to World Bank analysis. Economic cooperation remains low, despite the Agreement on a South Asian Free Trade Area. The region’s low level of intra-regional trade is a puzzling phenomenon, and it’s left many interested folks asking questions. Here is a visual representation of regional trade in South Asia in WITS that can help quickly unpack some of these questions as they relate to the region.
AGOA should do more to strengthen intellectual property in Africa’s creative sectors (National Law Review)
It is time for protection of IP rights to be more than just a condition for AGOA eligibility. The U.S. government should provide technical and capacity-building assistance to AGOA-eligible countries in order to help their governments create IP policy frameworks, modernize IP laws, and enforce these regimes. In the interests of promoting regional integration, the U.S. government also should work with the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization and the Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle to develop regional agreements (such as the Swakopmund Protocol and the Banjul Protocol) and address issues that are of a cross-border nature. An added benefit to acting at the regional level is that it facilitates a coordinated approach to dealing with creative works that stem from traditional knowledge or traditional cultural expressions.
Implications of AGOA out-of-cycle review for South Africa (tralac Newsletter)
Time for a reality check of what is at stake in AGOA talks (Business Report)
EACSOF roots for closer collaboration with East African Regional Assembly (EAC)
The Civil Society in the region under the aegis of the East African Civil Society Organisation Forum (EACSOF) is keen to take collaboration with the East African Legislative Assembly a notch higher. Consequently, linkages between both organisations are expected to be strengthened following the development of a collaboration framework.
WTO launches dedicated website for new Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility (WTO)
The TFAF was created at the request of developing country and least-developed country (LDC) members to help ensure that they receive the assistance needed to reap the full benefits of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and to support the ultimate goal of full implementation of the new Agreement by all members. The TFAF will support these countries in assessing their specific needs and identifying possible development partners to help them meet those needs through a diverse number of activities.
UNCTAD training session for LDCs on drafting and negotiating preferential rules of origin: Download the presentations
European Union gives Sh1bn to boost Kenyan exports
The money is to be spent on a project dubbed Standards and Market Access Programme (SMAP) which aims at extending capacity on Kenya’s technical and phytosanitary barriers to international trade. According to SMAP Chief Technical Advisor Mr Stefano Sedola, a number of Kenyan producers have encountered difficulties in accessing the EU market especially in 2013 and 2014. The products that have been mostly affected, according to Mr Sedola, include French beans, snow peas, gypsophila, karalla and roses, among others.
How standards will help trade amongst Africans (Daily Trust)
Uganda: 2016 Budget hits record Shs24 trillion (Daily Monitor)
The government has presented a Shs24.1 trillion Budget for the 2015/16 Financial Year, up from this year’s Shs15 trillion. This is the second time in many months the government has revised upwards its 2015/2016 Financial Year (FY) Budget estimates.
Nigeria's foreign trade down by N110.2bn in first quarter (ThisDay)
According to the NBS, value of imports stood at N1.64 trillion Q1 2015, representing a decrease of N385.8billion or 19 per cent from N2.03 trillion recorded in the preceding quarter. Year-on- year however, the value of the country’s imports increased by N99.8billion or 6.5 percent from the Q1 2014 value of N1.54 trillion. On the other hand, the value of exports totalled N3.23 trillion in Q1 2015, representing an increase of N275.6billion or 9.3 per cent over the value recorded in the preceding quarter.
FG revenue to drop further with ECOWAS CET implementation (Leadership)
The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015 (FAO)
The number of hungry people in the world has dropped to 795 million – 216 million fewer than in 1990-92 – or around one person out of every nine, according to the latest edition of the annual UN hunger report, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015 (SOFI). Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment in the world – at 23.2 percent, or almost one in every four people. However, African nations that invested more in improving agricultural productivity and basic infrastructure also achieved their MDG hunger target, notably in West Africa. [Download]
Accra Perspectives on international public finance and the Financing for Development process (Development Progress)
The event brought together a diverse group of actors to discuss priorities relating to official development assistance and international public finance to be addressed in the post-2015 Financing for Development (FfD) discussions which will culminate in the Addis Ababa agreement in July 2015. What follows is an overview of the main themes that emerged from these discussions.
What is really slowing India’s exports? (LiveMint)
Domestic problems such as an electricity shortage continue to hamper export manufacturers. Sonal Varma, economist from Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Pvt. Ltd, said, “A textile company could get a large order inflow but if they don’t have power production, then they cannot operate at full capacity.” Over two-thirds of Indian exporters are small producers and are unable to benefit from alternatives such as having a captive power plant. Other infrastructure issues such as rail, road and port connectivity are not keeping up with demands of the day, said HSBC in a research note dated 26 May.
Kenya Airways gets Sh4.2 billion Treasury bailout (Business Daily)
Kenya: Delayed pact with Brazil hurts trade (The Star)
Sh4.4tr required to decongest Dar (The Citizen)
Kenya: Regional blocs the way to go for counties (Daily Nation)
Rwanda: Govt moves to help professionals break into EAC labour market (New Times)
Angola and China discuss new cooperation model in Beijing (MacauHub)
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)
