The selection: Tuesday, 17 November

Starting today in Dubai: Third Africa Global Business Forum. Twitter updates: @AGBForum

Nigeria’s National Assembly Dialogue on Economy, Security and Development concludes today: access the presentations

The Fourth Congress of African Economists continues: opening speech by Anthony Mothae Maruping

Today: a briefing by SA's trade minister on the Promotion and Protection of Investment Bill

South Africa and US agree on terms for US poultry imports (Reuters)

South Africa has signed an agreement with the United States to resume import of 65,000 tonnes of chicken each year, which had become bogged down over health concerns, the government said on Tuesday. “We are on track to resolving the outstanding issues related to beef and pork. The chicken protocol shows we are moving in the right direction,” South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry spokesman Sidwell Medupe told Reuters, adding that outstanding issues will be finalised by Dec. 31.

Pakistan to challenge South Africa’s decision in WTO (The News)

According to official announcement made here on Monday, the Ministry of Commerce decided to challenge South African decision to impose preliminary anti-dumping duty (PD) on the import of Pakistani cement in the WTO. During May this year, South Africa imposed various rates of PD on Pakistani cement exports ranging from 15%-68% anti-dumping duty on the import of Pakistani cement. South African government considered that these imports were causing injury to the local cement industry. Pakistan, however considers that these measures by the South African government are inconsistent with several provisions of the various WTO agreement. Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the WTO Dr. Tauqir Shah has written a letter to his South African counterpart in Geneva for formal consultations. Any dispute at the WTO begins with a request for consultations and the dispute has a minimum of two stages. First is the consultations stage without involvement of WTO secretariat which involves a combination of politico-legal-economic claims. Second is the panel stage, with the involvement of WTO secretariat and is purely based upon legal and economic claims.

South Africa: Citrus industry earns a more favourable EU stance on black spot scare (Business Day)

South Africa, Turkey to boost bilateral trade (Journal of Turkish Weekly)

ECOWAS, IGAD updates:

Stringent border rules impede ECOWAS trade protocols (The Graphic)

Ghana's finance minister, Mr Seth Terkper, has stated that the failure of the Trade Liberalisation Scheme of the Economic Community of West African States to achieve its objectives of economic integration was due to the stringent cross-border barriers of member countries. In his presentation of the 2016 budget statement to Parliament on November 13, the finance minister called for the removal of trade bottlenecks that were impeding the implementation of the ECOWAS trade protocols. “While some progress has been made in reducing tariffs, they have not been fully eliminated. Progress towards removing non-tariff barriers such as seasonal import and export bans has been slower. The failure to implement the instruments on the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme is affecting economic growth in the sub-region”, he said. [2016 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana]

ECOWAS, Development Partners annual coordinating meeting concludes today

EU urges ECOWAS nations to comply with common tariff (StarAfrica)

ECOWAS electricity regulators, operators meet today in Accra (VibeGhana)

IGAD summit in Juba delayed to next week (Sudan Tribune)

IGAD, UN convene peace and security dialogue

IGAD’s regional assessment and mapping of radicalization and violent extremism

Malabo meeting to scale up regional agricultural trade and value chains (IPPMedia)

According to NEPAD, the topics to be addressed during the conference are: a progress report on regional agricultural trade and the performance of the strategic value chains and the regional regulatory and policy framework - moving towards greater coherence in trade and agricultural policies in Central Africa. Finally, the conference recommendations will have to be incorporated into the framework of the PRIASAN action plan, as will the arrangements for the governance system of the Regional Council for Agriculture, Food and Nutrition in Central Africa (CRAAN).

Kenya’s Daily Nation is posting a series of articles on the coffee sector: Coffee's share of exports falls five-fold over 30 years, How coffee farmers lose millions at the hands of millers, How groups of coffee farmers overcame cartel, The case for a commodities exchange to lock out rogue traders and cartels

COMESA member states study Sudan’s Bt-cotton fields

Twelve officials and seven journalists drawn from Malawi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe participated in the visit. It covered biotechnology and bio-safety Research Centre, ginneries, seed processing units and several Bt-cotton farms along the Blue Nile River. Sudan is the only state in COMESA to have commercialized the Bt-cotton technology (since 2012) with over 100,000 acres currently under cultivation and 97% of the farmers now growing the variety.

G20 Summit resources: G20 Leaders’ Communiqué, Antalya Action Plan, the 22 Agreed Documents can be accessed from here

WTO, OECD, IMF at G2O: DG Azevêdo urges G20 leaders to strengthen global trading system, G20 leaders endorse OECD measures to crackdown on tax evasion, Lagarde urges full implementation of G20 agenda

PIDA Week calls for scaling-up project preparation to unlock infrastructure financing (AfDB)

Delegates attending the consultative Week for PIDA, taking place at the headquarters of the African Development Bank in Abidjan from November 13-17, heard that the most binding constraint to unlocking infrastructure financing in Africa was lack of properly prepared projects, which in turn is due to lack of adequate capacity to prepare large projects.

Carlos Lopes: 'Tunisia’s economic future is in Africa' (UNECA)

Unfortunately, Tunisia is not particularly well integrated with the rest of the continent. In terms of its share of African exports in relation to GDP, it ranks 29th in the continent. In terms of investment, while it has one of the best regulatory environments in Africa (4th in terms of starting and operating a local business), Tunisia ranks only 28th in terms of attractiveness for foreign investment. Accordingly, when we look at regional value chains, Tunisia ranks 21st in terms of its share of the total exports of intermediate goods within Africa. A study that ECA has just conducted with UNIDO assesses the impact of various strategic trade agreements on exports for Tunisia and North Africa.

Trade in the spotlight at Commonwealth summit (CommSec)

International trade will be one of the prominent issues on the agenda when Commonwealth leaders meet in Malta between 27 and 29 November, as countries seek ways to respond to urgent global challenges. Under the theme ‘The Commonwealth – Adding Global Value’, heads of government will gather at the biennial summit to address international priorities including climate change, migration and violent extremism. The Commonwealth Business Forum, taking place in the run-up to the summit, will serve as a platform for countries to showcase investment opportunities and improve trade. During the Forum, the Commonwealth will launch its new trade report, which provides an in-depth analysis of trade issues relevant to the Commonwealth.

Migration, refugees and internally displaced persons: STC convenes in Addis (AU)

The overall objective of the first session of the STC on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons is to consider and adopt its Rules of Procedure, consider and adopt Common African Position on Humanitarian effectiveness to submitted to the World Humanitarian Summit, due to hold in Istanbul, Turkey in May 2016 and the African Humanitarian Policy Framework and the Disaster Management Guidelines.

Migration and the Global Development Agenda (World Bank)

As the first event (9 Dec) after the finalization of the SDGs, this conference will bring together major stakeholders on migration and development to highlight the latest thinking on how to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks associated with migration for host, origin and transit countries as well as for the migrants and their families

Rwanda’s border communities urged to optimise integration benefits (New Times)

Kenya-Egypt trade exchange hit $474m in 2014 - minister (Zawya)

Ethiopia: UN warns of deepening food insecurity (UN News Centre)

El Niño on track to be among worst ever, but world better prepared for fallout – WMO

South-South cooperation on climate change: Beijing conference speech by Ibrahim Thiaw (UNEP)

Africa has the world’s fastest-growing labor force but needs jobs growth to catch up (Quartz)

Should we continue to use the term “developing world”? (World Bank Blogs)

India: October trade data shows frailty of economic recovery, Merchandise exports contract for 11th month

Brazil keen to further strengthen trade ties with India (Economic Times)

USDA secretary to lead trade mission to Africa (Crop Protection News)

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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)