News
tralac’s Daily News selection: 3 September 2015
The selection: Thursday, 3 September
The inaugural African Tax Research Network congress has started in Cape Town. Follow the discussion on twitter, #ATRN2015
How is Africa preparing for COP21? Follow the ClimDev, Dar es Salaam conference, #ACTAfrica
For the purposes of resolution No. 2, the EAC should formulate a regional Local Content policy which clearly defines ‘local’ in a regional content to ensure that preferential treatments accorded to nationals are extended to all suppliers within in East Africa region.
The EAC should formulate a regional strategy for engagement with China in a view to leveraging and attracting Chinese investors, and re-location of manufacturing into the region taking advantage of the rising labour costs in China.
The EAC to enact a law and put in place an effective enforcement mechanism that will deter import, production, sales, and distribution of counterfeit and illicit goods.
Trade experts slam Kenya-Uganda sugar deal feud (New Times)
The first-ever East African manufacturing business summit closed yesterday in Kampala with participants urging partner states to recommit themselves to the customs union and avoid protectionism in order to allow for free trade and fair competition to prevail in the region. Speaking at the two-day summit, Dr Mukisa Kituyi, the secretary general of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, said the current hullabaloo in Kenya over Ugandan sugar exports is a symptom of an inefficient EAC customs union authority. “If there was an efficient and properly working customs union authority there would be no notion of exporting from Uganda to Kenya because you would not call that exporting,” he said.
More than 50 African trade-in-services negotiators, officials trained (UNCTAD)
Trade negotiators from 19 Anglophone African countries and African Union Commission officials benefitted from training provided by international, regional and national experts in an intensive workshop on trade in services negotiations in Nairobi, Kenya, on 24-28 August. Participants learned about the importance of services trade in African development, services negotiations at the global and regional levels, and possible options and approaches to services negotiations at the pan-African level, including in sensitive sectors such as labour mobility. The participants unanimously called for further such training to be conducted, preferably back-to-back with formal African Union services negotiating sessions.
More than US$2.3bn in trade between Brazil and Angola in 2014 (MacauHub)
Official 2014 figures from the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade show that Angola exported to Brazil products worth US$1.261bn during that year while importing Brazilian merchandise worth US$1.109bn. Bilateral trade figures for the period from January through July 2015 nevertheless indicate a major slowdown, with Brazil, for example, importing Angolan products worth US$17.8m, versus US$487.5m in the same period of 2014. During the same period Brazil’s sales to Angola fell by nearly a half, from US$632.6m from January through July 2014 to US$353.8m during the first seven months of 2015.
South Africa offers UK best trade potential on Barclays Index (Bloomberg)
South Africa is the most open and potentially lucrative country on the continent for U.K. companies looking to expand their businesses, according to the first edition of the Barclays Africa Trade Index. Of 31 sub-Saharan countries, South Africa ranked second in terms of abundance of opportunities after Nigeria and first for openness and ties to other African states, according to the index, commissioned by London-based bank Barclays Plc. “While South Africa is the standout performer in the overall index, Nigeria arguably represents the most exciting long-term opportunity for U.K. businesses,” Barclays said in the report published Thursday. “However, its performance in terms of openness, 12th, and intra-African connectivity, 16th, means that Nigeria still has a long way to go before it can hope to compete with South Africa as a regional trade hub or as a gateway to other African markets.”
Treasury on Moody’s affirmation of South Africa’s ratings (GCIS)
BMF Transformation Barometer Research Report 2015 (Black Management Forum)
Swazis risk losing Europe trade benefits (Business Report)
The Swaziland government has responded with defiance against a European Parliament resolution calling on King Mswati to honour its treaty commitments on labour and human rights. EU parliamentarians meeting in Brussels warned in their resolution that non-compliance would jeopardize Swaziland’s R20 billion in exports to the European Union (EU).
Lesotho: IMF completes 2015 Article IV Mission (IMF)
Looking ahead, Lesotho faces a challenging economic outlook, and growth for 2015 is expected to slow to about 2½%. The economy depends heavily on Government spending, financed largely by revenues from the Southern African Customs Union. But SACU revenues, which are highly volatile, have begun to slip and are expected to fall sharply in the next fiscal year, 2016/17 (to just over 15% of GDP, compared with almost 30% in 2014/15).
Mozambique: FinScope Consumer Survey 2014 (FinMark Trust)
The Government, through its Financial Inclusion Action Plan, is currently designing a Financial Inclusion Policy with assistance from the World Bank as a follow-up action foreseen by the Mozambique Financial Sector Development Strategy (MFSDS) 2013 – 2022. One specific financial inclusion objective of this strategy is to ensure that 35% of adult Mozambicans have bank accounts by 2022. This brochure summarises the findings of the FinScope Consumer Survey 2014 and, as such, will address the information needs that would enable the Government of Mozambique to develop and monitor evidence-based policies and regulations which will help extend the reach of financial services in Mozambique.
Zimbabwe: ‘Competition policy needs review’ (NewsDay)
The United Nations Conference for Trade and Development lead consultant, Allan Mlulla, said the objectives of the draft policy would be to address problems related to the control of mergers and acquisition cartels and misuse of market power in key sectors. He recommended that there should be a comprehensive competition policy for Zimbabwe. The policy will provide guidance on treatment of social, economic and legal issues facing Zimbabwe competition legal framework.
Zimbabwe's energy regulator hires SA firm, Genesis Analytics, for fuel pricing model (NewsDay)
Tanzania: Cashew nut fund to construct three processing plants valued at 115bn/- (IPPMedia)
The Cashew nut Industry Development Trust Fund is planning to spend 115bn/- for the construction of three modern processing plants so as to increase the value of the crop and create more jobs. Speaking during a cashew nut stakeholders meeting here, the CIDTF Executive Secretary Selemani Lenga said the planned plants will be constructed at Mangamba area in Mtwara, Tunduru in Ruvuma and Mkuranga in Coast regions. He said once completed, the factories will have the capacity of processing at least 30,000 tonnes per year, (10,000 tonnes per each factory).
Tanzania's Bakhresa to take over Blue Ribbon in Zimbabwe (The Herald)
Dar, Mombasa ports need to complement each other (Tanzania Daily News)
Trademark East Africa says it supports upgrading of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa ports, not for them to compete against each other, but to serve the region better in the wake of booming trade. The TMEA Board of Directors Chairman, Mr Ali Mufuruki, said last week that their support to improve physical capacity and efficiency at the two ports was not focused on competition but to help them optimise their potential as "they operate far below their capabilities."
Namibia: Logistics infrastructure fits together (Informante)
The development of Namibia’s logistics network can only yield maximum returns if it takes place in a coordinated way. Port, airport, rail and road infrastructure development should roll out parallel, to complement one another and to avoid certain segments of the network not able to cope with increased demand. This was said in Swakopmund by the chairman of the Walvis Bay Corridor, Bisey Uirab during the celebration of the 15th year since inception of this body which was created to develop Namibia as a regional logistics hub in Sub-Sahara Africa.
COMESA takes initiative to harmonize mineral policies in Member States (COMESA)
Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya says the policy will be guided by the Africa Mining Vision and will lay emphasis on mining for development and socio-economic transformation. Mr Ngwenya was speaking today during the opening of the African Down Under mining conference in Perth, Australia. “An important aspect of the harmonized environment would be on optimizing the fiscal frameworks through appropriately configured taxation mechanisms,” Mr Ngwenya said.
Mainstreaming gender in natural resources management in the work of the ANRC: EOI (AfDB)
Grim outlook for Kenya’s Sh100bn AGOA target (Daily Nation)
Kenya is not likely to meet its target of Sh100 billion ($1 billion) in earnings by the end of 2017 from textile exports, analysts have said. Ecobank Capital soft commodities analyst Victoria Crandall said the country is currently producing an eighth of the cotton it requires for optimum production. Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed, however, dismissed the report, saying the targeted Sh100 billion would be facilitated by imported textile and not the local upstream industry. “The initiative to start local farming is totally different and the textile we import from China and sew here, and sell to the United States is expected to gradually pick up in the next three years,” he told the Nation at Kilimo House yesterday.
‘Agrocorridors’ to boost food security (African Business Magazine)
Nogales is an open proponent of economic “agrocorridors”, which she believes can serve as a strategic tool to bring private capital and large-scale investment to agricultural projects in Africa. This, she believes, will benefit smallholder farmers and boost food security. Agrocorridors are development programmes that foster agriculture along lines of transportation such as highways, railroads, ports or canals. They integrate investments, policy frameworks and local institutions.
Land rights: an essential global indicator for the post-2015 SDGs
Leveraging decades of extensive expertise, a broad coalition of global and national organizations, civil society, and experts, including the United Nations Environment Program, the Women’s Major Group, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, recommends the following Land Rights Indicator. Universal and feasible, this recommended land rights indicator is vital to four of the sustainable development goals, including ending poverty (goal 1), ensuring food security (goal 2), achieving gender equality and empowering women (goal 5), and making cities and human settlements inclusive (goal 11).1 This indicator, best placed under Target 1.4, would capture gender equality and progress of all people’s on-the-ground rights to land, property, and natural resources.
Helen Clark: statement to the Second Regular Session of the UNDP Executive Board (UNDP)
Looking ahead, we need to ensure that all countries, and in particular the poorest and most vulnerable, are able to access the range of financing opportunities which is available. UNDP is already supporting national partners, especially in LDCs and SIDS, to ensure that diverse financing streams can complement and reinforce each other – for example by implementing Development Finance Assessments, first in seven countries of the Asia Pacific, and now also beginning in Africa. This work maps the complex resource flows, and designs integrated national financing frameworks which will support an actionable agenda on SDGs. It is particularly important to find synergies between development and environment finance. Greater synergies between humanitarian and development finance would help too.
G20 finance ministers, central bank governors: IMF note on global prospects and policy challenges
Structural reforms to raise sustainable growth differ across countries. They include removing infrastructure bottlenecks in the power sector (India, Indonesia, South Africa); easing limits on trade and investment and improving business conditions (Brazil, Indonesia, Russia); and implementing reforms to education, labour, and product markets to raise competitiveness and productivity (Brazil, China, India, South Africa) and government services delivery (South Africa). In India, the post-election recovery of confidence and lower oil prices offer an opportunity to pursue much-needed structural reforms. [Download]
11 potential effects of the Chinese Yuan devaluation on the Ghana Cedi (STARR FM)
Do you smell the money? Accra, Nairobi seen adding dollar millionaires faster than any other African cities (M&G Africa)
Weak SADC Tribunal a regression on democracy (Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition)
Swaziland: Rand/Lilangeni slump good news for local sugar industry (Swazi Observer)
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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)
