News
tralac’s Daily News selection: 14 August 2015
The selection: Friday, 14 August
Featured infographics: The future of the world’s population in 4 charts (World Bank)
CFTA Soapbox: What legal format for the Continental FTA? (tralac)
While it is true that negotiations involving 54 states will be very challenging and that quick results are necessary in order to keep the momentum, there is no guarantee that negotiations about trade in goods will deliver a quick result; the exact opposite might happen. By starting with tariffs (and the concomitant rules of origin aspect), the quick results hoped for will not materialize. The TFTA process has taught us an important lesson; tariff negotiations between African States at different levels of development have become an extremely complicated matter. And regional hegemons are powerful players.
The TFTA negotiations, which involved only 26 countries, could not reach agreement on tariffs. After four years of negotiations the essential elements of a trade in goods agreement (tariff schedules and rules of origin) are still outstanding. What the CFTA process needs to avoid is the present TFTA dilemma. The TFTA Agreement has been signed but without the negotiations being concluded. [The author: Gerhard Erasmus]
Intra-REC trade and overlapping membership: review of COMESA, EAC and SADC (tralac)
This paper analyses trade between the three Regional Economic Communities (RECs) of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the African Economic Community (EAC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) using trade data from the International Trade Centre (ITC). The data is generally ranked by 2013 as that is the most consistently and seemingly comprehensive reporting available.
Examining each REC in turn we find that both Rwanda and Uganda export around half of their totals to COMESA, with DRC and Burundi around 20%, Zambia and Malawi around 15% and the rest below this figure. Libya with less than 0.5% is the outlier. Within the EAC, Kenya is the largest intra-EAC exporter with a share that varies around one-half while Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania have similar shares of around 15% to 20%. Rwanda reports that some 72% of its exports were destined for EAC during 2013, but the data for other years varies significantly. As expected, South Africa dominates the intra-SADC exports with a share around 50% to 60%. [The author: Ron Sandrey]
SADC: a collection of Summit-related links
SADC Council of Ministers: remarks by O.K. Matambo (Botswana Government)
Malawi’s Mutharika will not attend SADC Summit (StarAfrica)
Malawi’s Nsanje Port not on SADC agenda again (Nyasa Times)
Socio-economic crisis grips SADC – churches (Mmegi)
SADC NGOs must be accountable - official (Nyasa Times)
SADC for the People, not corporations! Social Movements at the 2015 SADC Peoples' Summit (La Via Campesina Africa)
Angola works on SADC protocols membership (Angola Press)
Why Uhuru is keen on striking trade deals with Uganda (Business Daily)
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s latest deals with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni, which have sparked heated political debate since his weekend trip to Kampala, were part of the Jubilee government’s effort to stop ongoing decline in Kenyan exports to its western neighbour. It was therefore not lost to keen observers of Kenya’s relations with Uganda that Mr Kenyatta would offer Kampala any sweetener that could culminate in Uganda removing some of the many barriers it has erected against Kenyan goods despite the political heat it was likely to generate.
EAC: various updates
EALA to debate Bill on regional electronic transactions (Business Daily)
EALA boosts integration process (Tanzania Daily News)
Tanzania not holding up talks on tourism - minister (IPPMedia)
COMESA Annual Research Forum underway in Uganda (COMESA)
The COMESA Annual Research Forum begun on Monday 10 to 14 August 2015 at the Laico Victoria Hotel in Entebbe. The main objective of the forum is to strengthen the participation of the government, leading policy research think tanks, academia and the private sector in regional integration agenda. Specifically, the forum will create an opportunity for sharing and discussing regional integration research findings. Further, the COMESA regional university will be discussed by various participating universities, Research areas emanating from the COMESA Summit of March 2015 will be shared and discussed and further areas of research which will be the focus of 2016 will be identified.
Central Banks staff trained to handle volatility in financial markets (COMESA)
South Africa: Presidential Business Working Group update (Agbiz)
On Friday, 7th of August, Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) and the Black Business Council (BBC) met with President Zuma, Deputy President Ramaphosa and Cabinet, as the Presidential Business Working Group. Dr John Purchase, CEO of Agbiz, formed part of the BUSA delegation. As an introduction, Government (Minister Rob Davies) presented on the state of the economy, while Mr Jacko Maree, who led the BUSA Delegation, responded with Business' remarks on the economy. The four Task Teams, viz.: education and skills; labour; regulatory impact; inclusive growth, reported on progress made with regard to their respective mandates. Government also emphasized their commitment to ignite economic growth and create jobs through the 9-Point Plan announced in the State of the Nation Address. In this Plan, "Revitalising agriculture and the agro-processing value chain" features as the top priority.
Extract from the Inclusive Growth presentation: Business and Government are at an advanced stage in developing the concept of the Inclusive Growth Implementation Agency (IGIA), to be modelled on the successful Business Trust. The IGIA will focus on effective implementation. It should comprise a lean executive, including associates, reporting to a Board made of government and business (incl. SOEs).
Operation Phakisa: President Zuma's implentation report (GCIS)
AGOA and South Africa: submission by Treatment Action Campaign, SECTION27, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, Stop Stock Outs Project to the out-of-cycle review on South Africa’s eligibility for benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act
28 top priorities to improve the ease of doing business in Mozambique (Club of Mozambique)
The dialogue between Mozambican private sector and the government which was formalised about two decades ago is about to enter a new phase with the signing of a memorandum of understanding to pursue priorities in improving the business environment in Mozambique identified by the two parties. In total, 28 priorities have been set, of which 22 were proposed by the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique, with the other six identified by the government.
Dar’s current account deficit narrows 23% (Tanzania Daily News)
Tanzania's current account deficit narrowed 22.5% in the year to June, helped by a decline in oil imports and improved performance of tourism and manufacturing sectors, the central bank said. The gap narrowed to $4.091bn in the 12 months to June from $5.281bn in the same period last year, the bank the said in its latest monthly economic report. Imports of goods and services fell to $13.37bn from $13.96bn previously, while total exports rose by 9.4% to $9.39bn, the bank said. “The decrease in imports was mostly driven by a decrease in intermediate goods, particularly oil and fertilizers,” it said. Earnings from tourism, the east African country’s main foreign exchange source, rose to $2.19 billion from $1.97 billion previously due to more visitor arrivals, it said.
Transport and trade facilitation newsletter (UNCTAD)
This edition of the Transport and Trade Facilitation Newsletter includes, in this regard, innovations on trade facilitation from Cote d’Ivoire and Greece, while also presenting regional trade facilitation innovations, including working with parliamentarians in Africa and partnerships in Latin America and the Caribbean, among others. In this edition in particular, you will find articles on the intrinsic relations between transport, trade facilitation and development, as well as UNCTAD’s first regional office in Africa and the new UNCTAD liner shipping bilateral connectivity index and benchmarking, among others.
Africa Geothermal Centre of Excellence: update (UNEP)
Around 80 delegates, including representatives of 13 African countries, gathered in Nairobi to explore the feasibility of establishing the Africa Geothermal Centre of Excellence (AGCE), which would enhance the continent's institutional and infrastructural capacities, and create a critical mass of geothermal scientists and engineers. The two-day workshop will assess a feasibility study, which catalogues the region's needs for geothermal development, drafts the AGCE's vision and evaluates its long-term sustainability.
What drives local food prices? Is it world prices? Weather? Seasonality? Policies? Fuel prices? Other costs? (World Bank)
In a recently published working paper, What drives local food prices? Evidence from the Tanzanian maize market, we examine the factors driving movements of prices in 18 major regional maize markets in Tanzania. The results underscore the importance of measuring and accounting for the influence of domestic drivers of local food prices, such as harvest cycles and weather disturbances. They also find that while the main external market (Nairobi) exerts a small, but statistically significant, influence on maize markets in Tanzania, the effect is much less than that of South Africa or the US market, often considered the “world” price.
EU, Nigeria and fear of $2b revenue loss (The Nation)
Experts at conference organised by the London-based Africa Today believe this is a time for Nigeria and other African countries to collectively protect their own destiny. Olukorede Yishau examines the case for and against the EPA:
Almost all firms in developing countries have fewer than 10 workers, with the modal firm consisting of just the owner. Are there potential high-growth entrepreneurs with the ability to grow their firms beyond this size? And, if so, can public policy help alleviate the constraints that prevent these entrepreneurs from doing so? A large-scale national business plan competition in Nigeria is used to help provide evidence on these two questions. The competition was launched with much fanfare, and attracted almost 24,000 entrants.
Nigeria: Manufacturers demand intervention to meet 20% non-oil export target (BusinessDay)
SMEs should be innovative to expand businesses - EABC (IPPMedia)
Swaziland to eliminate barriers to ratification, approval of Tripartite FTA (Swazi Observer)
Ebola can be defeated by end of 2015, WHO chief tells UNSC (UN)
MDGs’ uneven success: Key gaps left unfilled (The East African)
ADB Chief Economist Shang-Jin Wei comments on depreciation of the renminbi (Asian Development Bank)
The World Bank is struggling with its own class divide (Washington Post)
China and the language of trade (Business Day)
This week in the news
Catch up on tralac’s daily news selections for the past week:
The selection: Thursday, 13 August 2015
The selection: Wednesday, 12 August 2015
The selection: Tuesday, 11 August 2015
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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)
