The selection: Monday, 28 September

Mozambique’s conformity with trade facilitation agreements: preliminary baseline assessment (SPEED)

The Mozambican government has called for more intensive research in the area of trade agreements. The preliminary Note below gauges progress towards meeting existing commitments related to trade facilitation documentation and procedures under the Trade Protocol of the Southern African Development Community, and future commitments related to the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement and the East African Tripartite Free Trade Area. The author finds that Mozambique is in a unique position amongst its southern African neighbours as the only SADC country with no overlapping regional trade agreements. [Download]

Great Lakes Trade Facilitation Project: update (World Bank)

About 80000 traders and their families in Africa’s Great Lakes Region whose livelihoods depend on cross-border trade will benefit from greater food security, more jobs, and an overall increase in welfare as a result of the US$79 million International Development grant and credit approved by the World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors. The financing will support the Great Lakes Trade Facilitation Project which is designed to reduce the costs faced by traders, the majority of whom are small-scale and women traders, in the surrounding borders of the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda. It will help to develop regional markets near border crossings and facilities to handle an increased flow of goods, services, and people, as well as provide resources to strengthen government agencies at the border to deliver high quality and efficient services.

Maersk: Reliable trade lanes key for Africa's economy (News24)

Access to trade, particularly in landlocked countries such as Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia, will remain a logistical challenge in the foreseeable future for both South African and global businesses, according to Bruce Marshall, Maersk Line country manager: Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. He said this is due to the continent’s lack of infrastructure and challenging customs procedures.

African Union to provide keynote at BORDERPOL Congress

SACU member states target illicit trade (New Era)

Recent joint risk management and enforcement operations by the Southern African Customs Union members states uncovered the smuggling of more than 9 million tobacco cigarettes and a total of 40 000 litres of un-denatured alcohol (100% alcohol with no additives) whereby 14 arrests were made across the region. The operations, codenamed Gryphon and TopLiq, also detected combined revenue loss of N$308 million comprised of customs duties, value added tax (VAT), and excise duties that would have been collected under legitimate declaration processes. [SACU drives trade facilitation (The Namibian)]

'Africa must industrialize': joint communique by AUC, OSAA, ECA, UNIDO

In particular, they called upon the private sector to recognize Africa’s export and domestic market potential, and invited foreign investors to substantively increase their commitments to the continent. They also called upon international organizations to provide industrial policy advice and technical cooperation programmes to enable African countries to implement their strategies and to forge stronger regional and inter-regional cooperation. They emphasized the urgency for all countries to promote structural transformation, technological change and innovation. Regional Economic integration, intra-African trade, increased foreign direct investment and official development assistance, and South-South and triangular cooperation will be fundamental pillars of this process. [AfDB speech]

WTO members tussle over size and shape of Nairobi package (Bridges, ICTSD)

Azevêdo’s call for members to refocus talks on a small package of less controversial measures was echoed by US Ambassador Michael Punke at an informal consultation on 17 September. “The United States continues to believe that we have a good possibility of achieving a package of meaningful outcomes for Nairobi and the DDA, centered around the export competition pillar of agriculture, meaningful steps forward on issues important to LDC members, and potentially some advances in transparency in several areas,” Punke told the meeting.

Africa trade ache cloud on meet (The Telegraph)

A sharp drop in trade with India over the past three years has triggered worries in Africa's biggest economies at a time New Delhi is plotting its biggest ever outreach to the continent through a grand summit in October, African and Indian officials have cautioned. But since the last summit, in Addis Ababa in 2011, India's bilateral trade with each of Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Angola - Africa's five largest economies - has declined, in some cases steeply (see chart).

Indian investors must turn to Africa's agricultural sector (Business Standard)

Various opportunities for exporting to Africa, says Egypt's new Minister of Industry (Daily News)

Qabil also stressed on Egypt’s intention to fully benefit from its collaboration with the COMESA, with a meeting scheduled to take place next November to follow up on the progress of applying the mechanisms of the COMESA customs union, with the aim of reaching the common market phase. The amount of trade exchange between Egypt and the countries of the COMESA reached $2.6bn in 2014, whereby $1.9bn of this amount represented Egypt’s exports value, while $693m is the amount of imports received from the COMESA, Qabil said. Further effort should be exerted to encourage some member countries at the COMESA to take rapid action to apply the rules concerned with customs exemptions, namely Ethiopia, Eritrea and Congo, Qabil noted.

New vision to increase industrial growth rate by 1.5% annually (Daily News), Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development (AfDB)

Japan-Africa RECs Summit: remarks by Akinwumi A. Adesina (AfDB)

Africa can never forget Prime Minister Abe's landmark announcement in January 2014 that Japan would provide $32bn of support for Africa under TICAD V, with a special focus on increased aid and support for infrastructure. And the African Development Bank was delighted by Prime Minister Abe's decision to double the amount of loans provided under the Enhanced Private Assistance for Africa program from $1bn to $2bn. I am pleased to inform you, Mr. Prime Minister, that EPSA II is well on track and the 2 billion dollars will be fully committed by the end of 2016. We look forward to EPSA III being renewed with an even greater level of support. [Today, the TICAD VI High Level pre-event: 'Africa’s Transformation through Industrial Development and Implementation of Agenda 2063']

JETRO’s 2014 survey on business conditions of Japanese-affiliated firms in Africa (JETRO)

Between September 15 and November 28, 2014, the Japan External Trade Organization conducted its latest survey on business operations of Japanese-affiliated firms in 24 countries in Africa including South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire. We received 251 valid replies (a 69.3% response rate) from the 362 companies to whom we sent questionnaires. The question items covered areas such as future business outlook, management problems in Africa, challenges in business and more. Below is a summary of the results. Summary points:

Japan International Cooperation Agency delegation visits EAC headquarters (EAC), Kenya to host the first Japan development forum on Africa (Daily News)

How China decided to redraw the global financial map with new bank (The Citizen)

Plans for China’s new development bank, one of Beijing’s biggest global policy successes, were almost shelved two years ago due to doubts among senior Chinese policymakers. From worries it wouldn’t raise enough funds to concerns other nations wouldn’t back it, Beijing was plagued by self-doubt when it first considered setting up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in early 2013, two sources with knowledge of internal discussions said. But promises by some Middle East governments to stump up cash and the support of key European nations - to Beijing’s surprise and despite US opposition - became a turning point in China’s plans to alter the global financial architecture.

Africa-South America Cooperation Forum (ASACOF) meets on Wednesday (African Union)

Today, in Windhoek: Promoting child nutrition in the Southern African Development Community region (IPU)

The SADC region suffers many forms of malnutrition including stunting, wasting, underweight and overweight. According to the 2013 World Health organization report, stunting rates are close to or above 30% in ten of the fifteen countries of the region. Despite the existence of regional and national nutrition promotion mechanisms, further efforts are still needed to address this issue effectively. The aim of the seminar would be to enhance the understanding of parliamentarians and their staff on issues related to malnutrition, stunting, and the deleterious effects they can have on their countries, and to boost their capacity to support action on nutrition. The seminar will focus on the powers (law-making, budgeting, oversight, and representation) parliamentarians can deploy to help reduce malnutrition rates.

Malawi facing worst food crisis in decade, requires $81 million in relief aid – UN agency (UN News Centre)

More than 2.8 million people will face hunger in the coming months in the worst food crisis in a decade in Malawi, where a staggering four out of every 10 children suffer from stunting, the United Nations World Food Programme has warned. “People in some affected districts have already started selling their livestock to make ends meet,” WFP said in a press release. “Women are also engaging in more firewood and charcoal selling, which degrades the environment and further aggravates the fragile climate.”

Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security (FAO), Agriculture and nutrition session at Africa Open Data Conference: a summary (GODAN)

COMESA facing fertilizer shortfall (COMESA)

To address this problem, Mr Ngwenya said the COMESA Secretariat was working on setting up a Fertilizer Financing Facility to spur rural transformation through investments in Small and Medium Enterprises working along fertilizer value chains. “Although the growth of the agriculture sector depends on productivity and access to markets, fertilizer use among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa is still the lowest in the world with an average of 12 kg per hectare,” Mr Ngwenya said. He said this was far below the 2006 African Union Abuja declaration which called for fertilizer use of at least 50kg per hectare per year. The world average is 200 kg per hectare per year.

SADC parliamentary conference: Mobilizing domestic financing for climate change responses

The Conference was held from the 23rd to the 24th September 2015 in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and in attendance were the Members of the Parliaments of Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe: Diaspora policy draft unveiled (The Herald)

Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion permanent secretary Dr Desire Sibanda said the National Diaspora Policy is expected to play an important role in harnessing resources needed for economic revival. He said $1,8 billion currently being remitted is not enough compared to the Zimbabwean population currently living in the diaspora. He said the diaspora should also focus on investments in productive sectors of the economy rather than setting up properties as investments.

Kenyan govt targets to raise Sh100 bn in textile and apparels by 2017 (CCFGroup)

Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Aden Mohamed has hired Mr Rajeev Arora , the Former African Cotton and Textile Industry Federation director to advise the ministry on reviving the sector. The Kenya government will now give tax incentives to 10 local and 11 multinationals, as well as reduced energy rates, to encourage them to set up shop. It also targets to raise Sh100 billion in textiles and apparels by 2017. Export firms will pay US cents 9/kwH, against the industry average of US cents 14/kwH, with a promise that the rate will be cut further to US cents 7/kwH in two years. The companies will also enjoy the benefits of export processing zones (EPZs) and will require only one licence from the county and national governments. Twenty one companies have expressed interest in cotton manufacturing. Other incentives include 10-year tax rebates and a 20-year period to amortize capital investments.

Lesotho: 11 new factories to offer 5000 jobs, says PM (StarAfrica)

Tanzania passes corruption index, set to receive $472.8m in MCC grant (IPPMedia)

What are the shortcomings of the World Bank's Doing Business index? (The Economist)

World Investment Prospects Survey 2014–2016 (UNCTAD)

Malusi Gigaba hits back at visa regulation critics (Mail and Guardian)

Kenya lobbies for CS Amina to be UN Secretary General (The Star)

SA wheat import duties climb to record as US prices drop (Business Day)

SA honey market opens for Zambia (Daily Mail)

Kibos set to pioneer industrial sugar milling in Comesa bloc (Business Daily)

The implications of CET for Nigerian products (Daily Times)

Africa Union launches its Learning and Development Strategy

Akinwumi Adesina: 'The fortunes of Africa will determine the success of the Sustainable Development Goals' (AfDB)

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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)