News
tralac’s Daily News selection: 4 August 2015
The selection: Tuesday, 4 August
Botswana to host SADC Summit: 7-18 August
Southern African Business Forum: 11-12 August
The 2015 SADC Peoples’ Summit: 15-16 August
SADC: Third Peer Review Panel meeting of Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors
The SADC Third Peer Review Panel meeting of Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors commenced Monday in Bulawayo to deliberate on key aspects relating to macro-economic convergence and financial sector integration for the SADC region. The meeting was preceded by a Session of Senior Officials which took place on 1st and 2nd August 2015.
Speech by Dr Stergomena Tax: allow me to congratulate the Government of Zimbabwe for ratifying the Protocol on Finance and Investment on 24 June 2015, bringing the number of Member States in this category to 11 [Speech by Minister Patrick Chinamasa]
Measuring, benchmarking customs and border management performance in COMESA Member States (AfDB)
The AfDB invites consultancy firms to express their interests in undertaking of a Time Release Study (TRS) for the COMESA Secretariat. The progress made so far in regional integration by COMESA reveals that the successful launch and implementation of its policies and programmes have greatly helped deepen regional integration. While a range of trade facilitation measures are being implemented by the COMESA Member States, there is no system in place to gauge the effectiveness of these initiatives or to enable improvements to existing procedures/documents/systems to further facilitate trade.
Under the auspices of the Japanese Policy and Human Resource Development Grant, therefore the AfDB is providing support for the undertaking of the TRS aimed at measuring and benchmarking Customs and Border Management Performance in COMESA Member States. The TRS will cover 10 countries and those contiguous to the 10. The TRS further aims at helping the COMESA Secretariat/Member States build the capacity to conduct TRS for pursuing trade facilitation in a standardized manner. The support sought will as well include the development of the capacity to design, collect data and more importantly emphasis on the ability to conduct analysis and drafting of policy recommendations upon or subsequent to consultation with the relevant stakeholders.
What EAC companies must do to partake of the integration projects (New Times)
The respective standards bodies in the region (RSB, KEBS, UNBS, OBN, TBS) have done a great job in developing standards, but these are yet to be universally taken up by most SMEs. Quality certificate is voluntary, thus most SMEs do not consider this important. And this is where the champions of the corporate world in the region, have their task cut out for them. EABC, PSF in Rwanda, PSFU in Uganda, KEPSA in Kenya, TPSFU in Tanzania, and their Burundi counterparts must take the lead initiative in getting the business world here catch up with global standards and practices. No excuse of being small. This is how industry and professional associations elsewhere protect their markets. [The author: Matsiko Kahunga]
Through ARSO, we are boosting intra-Africa trade (ThisDay)
Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria Joseph Odumodu, discuses how the Africa Standards Organisation under his leadership, is enhancing trade on the continent, he spoke with Crusoe Osagie. Excerpts:
International transport and trade facilitation in North Africa (UNECA)
Although intra-regional trade doubled between 2007 and 2013, intra-regional trade remains well below its potential, accounting for only 4.8% of member country exports, against the African continental average of 12%. Despite several initiatives to launch an economic integration process (Arab Maghreb Union, Agadir agreement, bilateral conventions) intra-regional trade remains in North Africa is one of the least dynamic in the world.
This situation has a number of causes, including the persistence of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, high indirect costs caused by the economies’ lack of integration and the shortcomings of national regulatory frameworks. It is also related to the fact that, despite their effort to facilitate trade and improve transport infrastructures, the countries have not paid significant attention to inter-State cooperation to facilitate trade and deepen the integration process; these aspects often remained within the national frontiers or were limited to relations between the countries and their trade partners outside the sub-region. [Download]
WTO Trade Policy Review programme for 2016
The WTO has announced the schedule for the programme of Trade Policy Reviews for 2016: African states include Malawi, DRC, Zambia, Mozambique.
Eleven members notify preferential measures in support of LDC services (WTO)
By 31 July, eleven WTO members had notified to the Council for Trade in Services preferential measures to enhance least-developed countries’ participation in world services trade. Implementing this key Bali Ministerial Decision is an important step towards the WTO’s development objectives for the poorest countries. The notifiying members are:
New compliance ratings on tax transparency (Global Forum)
The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes published new peer review reports on 3 August for 12 countries or jurisdictions, moving further ahead with its goal to implement global standards on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes. Phase 1 reports on Albania, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Dominican Republic, Lesotho, Pakistan and Uganda assessed their legal and regulatory frameworks for transparency and exchange of information on request. These countries were assessed to have legal frameworks in place to enable them to move to the next stage of the review process, which will assess exchange of information practices.
South Africa: Tourism and Migration, April 2015 (StatsSA)
In April 2015, there were 1 169 290 foreign arrivals to South Africa. The arrivals were made up of 84 125 non-visitors and 1 085 165 visitors. The visitors consist of 365 608 same-day visitors and 719 557 overnight visitors (tourists). The breakdown of the tourists by region is as follows: 144 771 from overseas; 560 389 from the SADC countries; 13 468 from 'other' African countries and the country of residence of 929 tourists was classified as unspecified.
Tanzania: Special industrialisation programmes expected to speed up development (Daily News)
"Investors are 'flying birds'...they always go where there is friendly environment to support their businesses," says Ms Nanyaro, hinting that there are even Tanzanians who relocate their investments to neighbouring countries where they believe the incentives are more competitive. According to available statistics, the benefits accrued from the new investments under EPZ/SEZ schemes are far higher than the sacrificed tax revenues under incentives. EPZs and SEZs have in the past seven years attracted investments worth over one billion US dollars, with the 130 registered companies creating 31,923 jobs for mostly Tanzanians, according to statistics by the Export Processing Zones Authority.
Zimbabwe: Clothing industry eyes 100% growth by 2020 (The Herald)
Zimbabwe Clothing and textile manufacturers are targeting 100% capacity utilisation by 2020 following Government’s directive to ban all second-hand clothes on the local market. Speaking on the sidelines of a tour of the company by the Office of the President and Cabinet yesterday, Zimbabwe Clothing Manufacturers’ Association chairman Mr Jeremy Youmans said clothing manufacturers welcome Government’s directive to ban second-hand clothing as this will provide a boon to their operations. “The entire industry is currently operating at 45% capacity and obviously some companies face difficulties but we are always optimistic of reaching that milestone. We are calling for flexible labour laws as well for us to achieve our goal,” said Mr Youmans. “Recapitalisation in the clothing and textile industry is not a big issue because most of our machinery is not expensive to replace.”
Genetically modified cotton piloted in Malawi (COMESA)
Lawmakers and scientists from four southern Africa States held a three day biotechnology meeting in Malawi to discuss and see genetically modified cotton which is on trial in Malawi. The meeting which involved visits to the Bt-Cotton confined field trials involved lawmakers from Zimbabwe and scientists from Malawi, Zambia and Swaziland.
Namibia: Research expert concerned about dairy industry’s future (New Era)
Roux is also concerned about the local industry going down as the risks of dairy production are very high. He urges communal farmers to get involved on a much higher scale in producing milk. “We must compare apples with apples. Namibia produces 200 million litres of milk per annum and simply cannot compete with South Africa, a country that produces the same volume each and every day. The Namibian dairy industry is not asking for a complete ban of imported milk from South Africa. What they are asking for is the same protection the maize and chicken industries are enjoying,” he concludes.
This paper documents the structural transformation in employment that has taken place in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past 15 years. In contrast to Asian economies, where at least half of the labor flows out of agriculture have gone into industry, in SSA, most of the workers have ended up in the service sector, especially household enterprises. Rwanda has been one of the stellar performers in SSA in terms of structural transformation with the strongest movement of workers out of agriculture. Contrary to conventional wisdom, except for the very top of the distribution of consumption in Rwanda, families in household enterprises now consume as much as non-agricultural wage earners.
Chinese investors eye real estate, manufacturing sectors (New Times)
Chinese investors have expressed interest in the country’s manufacturing and real estate sectors, as well as the ongoing regional infrastructure projects, according to Yvette Umutoni, the head of investments at the Rwanda Development Board. Umutoni said the investors representing over 50 Chinese firms have already met with their Rwandan counterparts and pledged to leverage on the country’s good investment climate to scaleup investments in these sectors. Han Jun, the president of the East Africa Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said they are looking to build a strong trade link that will help attract more Chinese investors into the country and the region as a whole.
Jibrin Ibrahim: 'Entrepreneurs and philosopher kings for Africapitalism' (Premium Times)
The problem in contemporary Africa has been that the appropriation of rent was not leading to the enhancement of capitalist production, it was producing a patrimonial state in which access to State resources was more important than production. One African capitalist has shown the way forward; Aliko Dangote is showing today that vast accumulation is possible, and indeed very profitable in capitalist production itself. I do hope Elumelu’s entrepreneurs would be looking at that path and the State would play its own role, such as ensuring producers actually have access to credit rather than just traders and speculators. Meanwhile, if Tony Elumelu himself would add Karl Marx to his already impressive reading list, we can have more to talk about as he progresses in his determination to produce entrepreneurs for the strategic and productive sectors of the economy.
Nigeria assumes UNSC Presidency (Security Council Report)
Nigeria will hold the Council’s presidency in August. An open debate on regional organisations and contemporary challenges for maintaining international peace and security is planned, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expected among the speakers. Nigeria has also planned a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Dmitri Titov on security sector reform (SSR), an issue it made a centerpiece during its previous presidencies in October 2011 and April 2014.
Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie: comments to African Leadership Academy seminar (ACBF)
European bank injects over $100mn towards expansion of Egypt’s trade finance (StarAfrica)
Nigeria, South Africa grapple with structural economic challenges (BusinessDay)
Nigeria investors rattled by Buhari delays on economic plans (BusinessDay)
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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)
