News
tralac’s Daily News selection: 2 June 2015
The selection: Tuesday, 2 June
COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Sectoral Ministerial Committee: Statement (SADC)
The Joint Meeting of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Sectoral Ministerial Committee took place on 29th-30th May 2015 in Dar es Salaam. The purpose of the meeting was to consider progress made in preparation for the Third COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Summit to be held on 10th June 2015.
Ministers reiterated the importance of making tariff offers and concluding related negotiations expeditiously. In this regard they decided that Member States that had not exchanged tariff offers do so within 6-12 months and those that have exchanged and are negotiating tariff offers should endeavour to conclude within 12 months. They noted that rules of origin are a crucial element for the TFTA and therefore Member States needed to expedite work to finalise outstanding areas and agree on the Tripartite rules of origin that will be applied in the new TFTA.
The Meeting also endorsed the transitional arrangements on trade remedies that will apply to the TFTA pending the finalisation of a complete Annex in this area. It should be noted that the TFTA Agreement already includes detailed dispute settlement disciplines and a completed Annex on Tripartite Dispute Settlement Mechanism.
25th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union
The Heads of State and Government will exchange views on: the report of H.E. Mr. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal and Chairperson of NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee; the report of H.E. Mr. John Dramane Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana and Chairperson of the High Level African Trade Committee...
Africa: Rising for the few (Oxfam)
Africa was cheated out of US$11 billion in 2010 through just one of the tricks used by multinational companies to reduce tax bills, according to new Oxfam report, ‘Africa: Rising for the few,’ released today. This is equivalent to six times the amount needed to plug the healthcare funding gap in Ebola affected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. Oxfam’s findings come as African political and business leaders get set to attend the 25th World Economic Forum Africa in South Africa. The main theme of the meeting will be how to secure Africa’s economic rise and deliver sustainable development. Reforming global tax rules so that Africa can claim the money it is due – and which is needed to tackle extreme poverty and inequality – is critical if the continent is to continue its economic rise. [Download]
Are SA’s new visa rules too much? (Business Report)
The International Air Transport Association notes with concern South Africa’s new immigration measures that were supposed to come into effect on Monday, including requiring adults travelling with children to carry unabridged birth certificates. IATA fully supports South Africa in its laudable campaign to combat child trafficking. But just how big is the problem? Is the country dealing with a problem of crisis proportions? And how much of it takes advantage of airlines serving South Africa’s major international airports? [The author, Raphael Kuuchi, is the vice-president, Africa, for the International Air Transport Association]
Michael Rake: 'A reinvigorated trade agenda necessary for all the countries' (IOL)
But where is South Africa in this torrent of trade dialogue? It seems to be taking something of a cautious approach, particularly to bilateral dialogue. It has not joined the TiSA dialogue in Geneva, and has seemed to put less emphasis on pursuing free trade agreements than some major emerging economy nations. The current difficulty in achieving progress via the Doha Round may mean that South Africa needs to devote more resources to trade outreach, as do other Brics and MINT nations.
Virusha Subban, Nkuleko Khumalo: 'South Africa must pursue US free-trade deal' (Business Day)
The proposed 10-year extension of AGOA, if passed, will provide some breathing space and an opportunity for SA and its SACU counterparts to seek to secure a contractual trade arrangement with the US. This is clearly time to reopen the stalled or failed US-SACU free-trade negotiations. [The authors are attached to Bowman Gilfillan]
Lesotho may lose 35000 jobs if US drops AGOA trade access (Bloomberg)
South Africa: DA calls for debate in Parliament over cost of AGOA exclusion (Demcoratic Alliance)
Rob Davies: 'Are companies investing in South Africa?' (ANC)
Kenya: Botswana retailer bids to take over 10 Ukwala stores (Business Daily)
Botswana’s retail chain Choppies on Monday said it had struck a deal to buy mid-tier Kenyan supermarket Ukwala for close to Sh1 billion, marking its entry into East Africa’s biggest economy. Choppies is entering the Kenyan market through a joint venture with the promoters of Export Trading Group, a Tanzania-based agri-business and logistics company.
Tanzania to sign second MCC compact (IPPMedia)
Tanzania is in a much better position to sign the second Millennium Challenge Corporation compact programme which focuses on power sector following the government commitments to put in place strategic reforms. Kamran Khan, Vice President of the Department of Compact Operations at the Millennium Challenge Corporation said yesterday: “MCC is impressed with government commitments in the undertakings.”
Tanzania: Dream come true as major railway line projects take off (Daily News)
Major railway infrastructure projects to link Tanzania with her landlocked neighbours are now set to take off. Analysts say that railway network will stimulate the economy and prosperity of the region as it will boost trade and investments and create thousands of job opportunities. But, on the other hand, a good railway network will make Tanzania a truly regional hub for transport and help the country make optimal use of her strategic geographical positioning which had remained manifestly underutilised for many years. Tanzania is a gateway to several landlocked central African countries including Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia.
Mozambique: Agriculture exports drop 23% – why should we care? (SPEED)
Traditional agricultural exports were down 23% in 2014 compared to 2013, according to the Bank of Mozambique. Falling world prices meant exports of tobacco were down 40% and of sugar 8%. SPEED has found that Mozambique’s agricultural production is not competitive. This directly affects us as consumers and citizens.
Namibia: Access to global meat markets vital (New Era)
Following the widespread occurrence of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in South Africa in 2010, and apparent spill-over into Namibia and the recent upsurge in occurrence of foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, a risk analysis for imports of livestock and meat and meat products into Namibia was seen as important. A recent investigation which examined the animal disease situation in countries that contribute to the Kavango-Zambesi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) as well as countries that border on those KAZA TFCA countries concluded that:
Namibia and Mozambique discuss new trade cooperation (Spy Ghana)
Namibia and Mozambique have a fishing agreement made in 2012 which allows the two countries to fish in each other’s waters. The two countries has allocated each about 36, 000 tons of fishing quotas over a five-year period through different fishing joint ventures. During the meeting in Abuja, Nyusi expressed the hope that both Namibian and Mozambican fishing companies will fully utilize the agreement from this year.
Uganda: Bitter sugar story (The Independent)
Having studied the Uganda commercial sugar industry over the past five years, the evidence emerging suggests that this is a sector which does not enjoy a comparative advantage in sugar production relative to other countries in the world. Sugar is number 1 trading commodity in the world, and according to the Global Ranking Report of 108 Sugar Producing Countries for 2013, Uganda is ranked number 38 in sugar production and number 41 in sugar yields per hectare. The table shows that SADC Sugar Producing countries have a comparative advantage of early market production of 9-12 months while Uganda requires 15-18 months (depending on whether its ratoon or plant cane crop). This translates into a a market lead-time or lag time of 6 months for Uganda. [The author, Michael Mugabira is a doctoral student at the UCT Graduate School of Business]
Better agriculture policies in the EAC (East African Business Week)
International conference on Africa's fight against Ebola (AU)
In line with the decision of the Assembly, the international conference will be organized in Equatorial Guinea from 20 to 21 July 2015 by the AUC, in collaboration with Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea, as well as ECOWAS and the Manu River Union. The conference on Ebola has strong propensity to provide an opportunity for Africa to take action and progress towards achieving robust national health systems that are adequately staffed and financed, that are resilient to shocks and health threats, and that are able to reach all people with good quality preventive and curative services. Within this, is the opportunity for analyzing concomitant approaches for better preparedness to confront and deal with outbreaks of communicable and non-communicable diseases as well as other public health emergencies.
SADC ministers: 'Increase funding for gender programmes' (The Herald)
“Ministers recommended that member-states, in consultation with Ministers of Trade, Investment and Industry, develop a regional multi-dimensional women’s economic empowerment and explore ways of enhancing women’s access to financial resources and markets and establish mechanisms and instruments to facilitate their access to finance for economic empowerment,” she said.
Azevêdo voices concern with slow progress in key negotiating areas (WTO)
Nigerian-Chinese Council promotes local Chinese industries (Leadership)
Community processing centres to drive Rwanda's industrial development - NIRDA (New Times)
Tanzania hosting Africa forum on electronic IDs (IPPmedia)
Uganda: How to widen tax base to gain additional revenue in next budget (Daily Maverick)
Republic of Congo: IMF completes 2015 Article IV Mission (IMF)
Vale Moçambique starts exporting coal via the port of Nacala this year (MacauHub)
Start of ethanol and sugar production increases diversification of Angola’s economy (MacauHub)
Budget reform before and after the global financial crisis (OECD)
Building financial sectors that support development (World Bank)
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)
