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tralac’s Daily News selection: 29 September 2015

News

tralac’s Daily News selection: 29 September 2015

tralac’s Daily News selection: 29 September 2015

The selection: Tuesday, 29 September

Starting, Wednesday: WTO’s 2015 Public Forum

India to host 53 African trade ministers (LiveMint)

The fourth India-Africa trade ministers’ meeting will be held on 23 October prior to the summit scheduled for 26-30 October. The industry department will also host the India-Africa business council meeting the same day. “It will be the largest meeting of trade ministers in India. It will give us an opportunity to review our status trade relation and take our engagement forward,” a government official said under condition of anonymity. On 26 October, India will host senior officials of the 54 countries, while on 27 October, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj will host her African counterparts. The official said India considers the tripatrite free trade agreement recently signed in June as an important milestone and is keenly watching the development. “We will keep ourselves engaged with the larger community that is emerging,” he added.

Dubai’s 2014 Africa trade (AME)

The value of Dubai’s foreign trade with Africa amounted to AED118 billion in 2014, according to figures released by Dubai Customs, where imports amounted to AED 60.8bn, exports AED13.7bn, and re-exports to AED44bn.

‘Mistrust’ hampering continental trade (IOL)

Ernst & Young tax partner Charles Makola said there has been an increase in bilateral and multilateral tax instruments intended to create harmony in the corporate tax base. However, in Africa tax is a political instrument. "This leads to an element of protectionism in each state with everyone looking inward and looking at what is best for the country."

SA’s investment in Africa is positive, should be celebrated, says Davies (Business Day)

Kenya’s exports to Uganda up for first time in 4 years (Business Daily)

Kenya’s exports to Uganda have grown for the first time in four years over the seven months to July amid a political storm over the countries’ bilateral trade. Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows the country sold goods worth Sh36 billion to Uganda in the period to July, up from Sh27.7 billion in a similar period last year. Exports to Uganda — the largest buyer of Kenyan goods — have been declining since 2011 on what experts attributed to a vibrant manufacturing sector in Kampala and local firms opening shop in the neighbouring country. The drop defied the creation of the East African Community common market in 2010, which was expected to boost commerce among five member states, including Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. [Leading Economic Indicators July 2015]

Contribution of UNCTAD to the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011-2020: 4th progress report

At its 62nd regular session, UNCTAD's Trade and Development Board reviewed progress in the implementation of the Istanbul Programme of Action for least developed countries for the decade 2011-2020. Since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, the economies of the world's 48 least developed countries have remained weak, despite averaging 5.2% in growth per annum. This growth figure is short of the 7% agreed in the Istanbul Programme of Action as necessary to address underdevelopment and widespread poverty in these countries. At this rate, the goal of half of all least developed countries meeting the criteria to graduate from the category by 2020, which is an aspiration of the Istanbul Programme of Action, cannot be met.

The Africa Urban Agenda: Presidential Dialogue

In order to harness the benefits of intra-African regional trade and investment, African Heads of State and Government will need to invest in both national and sub-national urban planning as well as regional, cross-border territorial planning. This calls for coordinated collaboration across borders and hence the significant role of the concerted efforts of Heads of State, the African Union and the regional economic bodies. Global attention is currently on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals. The need for Africa to take advantage of the window of opportunity created by the Sustainable Development Goal 11 cannot be over emphasized. Concrete decisions need to be made through a deliberate consolidation of commitments by African leaders to ensuring inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements across the region. [Aide Memoire], [Download: Sustainable Urban Development in Africa]

Cooperating partners call for strengthened and strategic collaboration in the preparation of NEPAD infrastructure projects (AfDB)

TICAD VI: selected updates

Japan to focus on African health system, extremism at 2016 summit: Abe (Japan Times)

Helen Clark: Towards TICAD VI - Africa’s transformation through industrial development and Agenda 2063 (UNDP)

Assessing progress in Africa toward the Millennium Development Goals (UNECA)

Having made encouraging progress on the Millennium Development Goals, African countries have the opportunity to use the newly launched Sustainable Development Goals to tackle remaining challenges and achieve a development breakthrough, according to a report released here today. Leadership, innovation and targeted investments in a number of social sectors have led to transformative interventions and in many cases revolutionized people’s lives, says an annual report produced jointly by the Economic Commission for Africa, the African Union, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, called “Assessing Progress in Africa Toward the Millennium Development Goals”. [Download]

African leaders cite ‘remarkable’ progress on MDGs and urge commitment to post-2015 agenda (UN News Centre)

African leaders speaking at the UN General Assembly debate today noted that their countries were guided by the Millennium Development Goals over the last 15 years, and that the post-2015 development agenda and the new goals adopted last week, embody the collective ambition to transform the world by 2030. “Similarly to other countries, I believe, Mozambique has achieved remarkable progress in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals,” said Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, the President of the southern African nation which recently celebrated 40 years of independence. Worth highlighting, he explained, is the expansion of access to education, gender balance in the access to primary education and compliance with the target on infant mortality reduction. “The commitment of Mozambique to the [post-2015 development agenda] is unequivocal and it has been expressed from the onset,” the President continued. “As you might be aware, Mozambique has been one of the 50 countries selected by the United Nations to host national consultations.”

Christine Lagarde: the Post-2015 Development Agenda (IMF), Roberto Azevêdo: Ending poverty and hunger (WTO)

United Nations taps African oil, mineral wealth to fight hunger (Reuters)

Four African countries have agreed to divert a portion of revenue from oil, gold and other resources to an innovative financing scheme that will tackle childhood hunger, the United Nations official behind the program said. Mali, the Republic of Congo, Guinea and Niger will each year contribute a portion of sales from gold, oil, phosphate and uranium from their state companies. The countries will pay 10 cents for every barrel of oil and 60 cents for every gram of gold into a fund managed by the U.N. children's agency UNICEF to buy nutritional supplements at a reduced price. [Background]

Conference alert: 'Towards a strategy for a strong agricultural sector in Africa' (AfDB)

Malawi’s farm subsidy benefits the poor but doesn’t come cheap (The Conversation)

Given the scale of the programme, there is, correctly, strong interest in its effectiveness and a number of evaluations have been conducted. In a recent paper, we present a comprehensive evaluation of the programme and its macroeconomic effects. While the statistical fog that characterises Malawi precludes definitive conclusions, the available evidence indicates that the programme has resulted in: [The authors: Channing Arndt, James Thurlow, Karl Pauw]

Dar set to produce 5,000 tractors yearly (Daily News)

Olam plans to go big on Africa coffee plantations (Staits Times)

Fairtrade Africa at 10: perspective by UK High Commissioner to Kenya (News Hour)

Zim, EU sign five financial agreements (The Herald)

Zimbabwe and the European Union have signed five financial agreements amounting to €89 million (about $97,9 million) and expect to add a further €40 million under the 11th European Development Fund 2014-2020 National Indicative Programme by year end. By the end of the year, the European Union expects to release more than two thirds of the €234 million under the NIP. Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa, however, called for the complete removal of the political and trade embargoes for the normalisation of relations if Zimbabwe is to see foreign direct investment coming into the country. Minister Chinamasa said although the intervention by the EU is commendable, investors “remain standing on the fence” until political differences between the Zimbabwe and the bloc are resolved. [Govt consults EU to implement EPA, NewsDay]

EAC states pulls out of regional power pool for new, larger EAPP (The East African)

The EAC’s senior energy officer Peter Kinuthia said the EAC member states also belonged to the wider Eastern Africa Power Pool under which the EAC Power Pool falls. EAPP is meant to link up nine countries by 2018. The overlap would not make investment sense as member states are required to contribute to each initiative. This means that the five countries will have their power lines connected to the larger power pool, whose headquarters will be in Addis Ababa. Four other countries – Egypt, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan – are members of the wider pool.

ECOWAS Energy Centre, UN women to establish 5m euro grant facility (StarAfrica)

Kenya now introduces special economic zones (The East African)

President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed into law the Finance Bill 2015, which spells out key measures to revamp activities in the special economic zones. The zones are currently undergoing a pilot programme in Mombasa, Lamu and Kisumu. Through the Act, the government exempted all supplies of goods and services to companies and developers in special economic zones from VAT and reduced the corporate tax rate for enterprises, developers and operators to 10 per cent for the first 10 years and 15 per cent for the next 10 years.

Kenya transport sector support project: implementation status results report (World Bank)

The project development objectives are to: (a) increase the efficiency of road transport along the Northern Corridor and the Tanzania-Kenya-Sudan road corridor; (b) enhance aviation safety and security to meet international standards; and (c) improve the institutional arrangements and capacity in the transport sector.

Tanzania: Call for aggressive AGOA strategy (Daily News)

Strengthening Nigeria-UK trade relations (The Guardian)

Buhari vows to address double taxation avoidance agreement (ThisDay)

Ease of biz: Govt pushes states to implement over 300 proposals (The Indian Express)


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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)

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