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tralac’s Daily News selection: 16 November 2015
The selection: Monday, 16 November
Namibia: Geingob asked to intervene in livestock export battle (New Era)
Stakeholders in Namibia’s N$2bn per annum livestock export industry have officially requested President Hage Geingob to intervene after the local livestock industry received devastating news last week that South African authorities intend to push through with animal health requirements for Namibian livestock, which could bring the local industry to its knees. Namibia currently exports some 180 000 weaners, 90 000 sheep and 250 000 goats per year to South Africa and the N$2 billion industry is the livelihood of especially small-scale and communal farmers. Chairperson of the Livestock Producers Organisation Mecki Schneider yesterday described the requirements as “trade restrictions requested by the SA Red Meat Producers Organisation, because they have no system in place to control the flow of animals to and from South Africa”.
ANC is justified in rejecting AGOA debate in Parliament (Business Day)
SA’s economic interests are important to the ANC, but so is the quality of the nutrition that lands on our shores. There must be a careful balance between the two. [The author, Stone Sizane, is ANC chief whip]
Egyptian non-oil exports rise 0.5% in October (Ahram)
The improvement in this month's exports is also due to increased credit facilities for exporters by the central bank, read the statement. Exports remain 17.7% lower in the period from January to October at $15.318bn compared to the same period a year earlier when they registered $18.611bn. The falling trend in manufacturing exports was caused by both energy and FX shortages, Hany Farahat, senior economist at Cairo-based CI Capital, told Ahram Online in a telephone interview in October. Egypt, which has gone from being a net-exporter to a net-importer of natural gas in recent years, has been diverting most of the fuel to power plants, leaving many factories unable to operate at full capacity.
Starting today in Nairobi: Convergence of AUC/AFDB/UNECA and RECs monitoring and evaluation systems for the First Ten Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063
Starting today in Abidjan: 2015 ICA Annual Meeting
Infrastructure financing trends in Africa 2014
The 2014 commitments of $74bn is $25bn less than the $99.6bn reported in 2013. A sharp decline (of over $10bn) in Chinese commitments and the inclusion in 2013 of an exceptional £7bn commitment from the US towards the Power Africa initiative account for this decline. African governments’ budget allocations to infrastructure of $34.5bn account for the largest share of reported commitments. ICA members reported commitments totalling $18.8bn in 2014 - less than the $25.3bn committed in 2013 but, excluding the exceptional US contribution of $7bn in 2013, the figure is on a par with the volumes committed since 2012. The remaining commitments were made by non-ICA member external public sector funders and the private sector.
ICA background paper: Implementing renewable energy initiatives in Africa
The challenge facing African nations in this task is not likely to be about attracting the capital for meeting these targets, or finding the technologies or skills to implement them. Rather, the challenge is likely to lie in creating an enabling environment to absorb this capital evenly across Africa, and in addressing the challenges facing the continent. In policy terms, the challenge is to set the continent on a path of rapid economic growth fuelled by a low-cost, low-carbon and sustainable energy base, i.e. to focus on ‘economic adaptation’ (i.e., maintaining a high level of GDP/kWh, and at the same time increasing ‘clean’ kWh/capita).
Concluding tomorrow: PIDA Week 2015
Projects suffering funding: AU (NewsDay)
Many projects under the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa, are not moving at the expected rate due to funding problems, the African Union has said. Speaking at a Press conference in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure Development, Elham Ibrahim, said African countries should have national and regional infrastructure projects harmonised. “There are so many projects going on, but they are not at the rate or speed we would want them to be. We want to accelerate [project implementation]. If there is something delaying that implementation or if there are some challenges, we can intervene so as to accelerate the projects,” Ibrahim said.
Infrastructure, a catalyst for Africa’s development
CBK Governor urges Africa to avoid external financing sources (Coastweek)
Kenya has called on African countries to counter global shocks by using strong African multilateral development finance institutions like the African Export-Import Bank. The Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge said the continent’s over-dependence on external financing sources made it vulnerable to such shocks. "Because Afreximbank was a home-grown institution, it understood the unique requirements and needs of African businesses," Njoroge said late Friday in a speech read on his behalf by Anne Muoki, Assistant Director in the Bank, during the final session of the 15th Afreximbank Structured Trade Finance Seminar in Nairobi. The remarks came as the IMF had cautioned African countries against rushing to issue eurobonds, saying they may face exchange rate risks and problems repaying debts.
Lesotho's controversial health sector public–private partnership project (The Lancet)
S&P affirms Development Bank of Southern Africa's ratings (CPI)
Government yet to recapitalise Uganda Development Bank - chairman (Daily Monitor)
Intra-African trade and Africa Regional Integration Index: progress report on intra-African trade (AU)
The index covers the following dimensions: tariff liberalization, trade facilitation, free movement of persons and labour markets, financial integration, macroeconomic policy convergence, social and cultural integration (including gender issues), regional economic community institutional capacity, regional value chains, statistical harmonization, and regional infrastructure (including communications, transport and energy). The present paper will give a highlight of some of the emerging findings from the data collected to date, organized according to its various dimensions.
Figure 5: Intra-African exports as a share of GDP, less re-exports, Figure 6: Intra-African imports as a share of GDP, less re-exports: Where re-exports are included, in 2013, Lesotho had the highest total intra-African trade to GDP ratio (91%), then Swaziland (81%), Namibia (57%), Zimbabwe (46%), Botswana (43%) and Zambia (41%).
Note: the above document is a submission to the December meeting of the Committee on Regional Cooperation and Integration, on the theme 'Enhancing productive integration for Africa’s structural transformation'
East Africa: 2015 Logistics Performance Survey (Shippers Council)
The 2015 LPS which has covered the maritime and airfreight sub sectors provides interesting performance based indicators. The study has also undertaken a perception analysis on railway and the services of government agencies. In addition, the 2015 survey draws a lot from the Port Charter that was signed by key agencies involved in trade facilitation in the presence of H.E. President Uhuru Kenyatta, on 30th May 2014. Based on the CTC indicators, the 2015 LPS indicates a general improvement in the overall logistics performance compared to 2014 save for Tanzania and Burundi that indicate a slip in the average scores of 2.77 and 2.25 respectively against 2.89 and 2.78 respectively in 2014. Rwanda has maintained first position with an average score of 3.66, followed by Uganda and Kenya with an average score of 3.09 and 3.07 respectively. The Survey conclusively shows a general decline in transport costs on the Northern Corridor while the Central Corridor registers a steady but marginal increase.
Northern Corridor transport rates drop (Business Daily)
KPA to expand cargo handling capacity ahead of import boom (The Standard)
Mozambique: Extralegal barriers to the employment of foreigners (SPEED)
The reports aim to identify the extralegal barriers to the employment of foreigners, in which extralegal barriers are understood to include all aspects, procedures or requirements not established by law and which are being applied and are creating obstacles to the private sector, as well as all aspects, procedures or requirements that should be applied because they are established by law and are not applied, to the detriment of the private sector. The reports also aim to provide recommendations for the elimination of these barriers, thus creating a more business-friendly environment in Mozambique, in order to ensure strong and sustainable economic growth.
Rwanda: Govt expresses concerns over latest report by WB (New Times)
Gatare said their disagreements with the influential report were not a concern specific to Rwanda, but all developing economies. “When you put a measure associated with the income of a country, already the outcome will be predetermined. It is those types of measurements that we expressed disagreement with,” he said. Regarding the unpredictability of the changes made, Gatare said for the report to be relevant to countries subscribing to it, it is important to ensure that stakeholders were aware of such developments.
BRICS: Informal meeting of BRICS Leaders on the margins of the G20 Summit
The Leaders instructed relevant agencies of BRICS countries to engage actively in the implementation of the Strategy for the BRICS Economic Partnership adopted at the Ufa Summit as well as in preparing a draft BRICS Roadmap for Trade, Economic and Investment Cooperation until 2020. The Leaders noted that geopolitical challenges, including the politicization of economic relations and the introduction of unilateral economic sanctions, continue to beset future prospects for economic growth. They urged the need to ensure that trade and economic blocs are consistent with WTO norms and principles and contribute to strengthening the multilateral trading system. They decided to strive to facilitate market inter-linkages and an inclusive, rules-based and open world economy.
BRICS Competition Authorities: Durban conference statement
The 18th Global Trade Alert Report (authors: Simon Evenett/Johannes Fritz, CEPR)
What is the future of the WTO? (authors: Peter Draper/ , Tutwa)
African states to back India’s push to remain ‘pharmacy of developing world’ (The East African)
G20 leaders pledge robust fight against patchy economy - draft communique (Reuters)
G20 leaders agree to cooperate on migration as a global problem (Today's Zaman)
B20 Turkey Antalya Summit statement
IMF review of SDR basket of currencies: statement by Christine Lagarde
"I support the staff’s findings. The decision, of course, on whether the RMB should be included in the SDR basket rests with the IMF’s Executive Board. I will chair a meeting of the Board to consider the issue on November 30."
IMF investment head quits to launch Africa-focused fund (The Telegraph)
Nigeria import bars spook manufacturers (Business Day)
Standard & Poor's bullish on Botswana's economic recovery (Mmegi)
EAC ‘too weak’ to intervene in Burundi, says law body (The Citizen)
SADC Administrative Tribunal hunts for judges (The Herald)
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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)
