The selection: Wednesday, 16 December

MC10 updates: WTO's 'Latest News' feature, Bridges Daily Update 2

Experts ponder CFTA's human rights impacts (UNECA)

A side-event titled 'A human rights perspective on the CFTA' was co-organised by the African Trade Policy Centre of the Economic Commission for Africa and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung on the margins of the WTO Tenth Ministerial Conference. The event addressed the questions of transparency and participation that participants agreed, are the key human rights principles and generally also good rules of thumb that can transform a trade negotiation from “a secret, exclusive process to an open, inclusive one that is acceptable to a wide range of stakeholders.” By early 2016, a first scoping study of the assessment will be published. At this side-event, some of the study’s analyses and recommendations were presented to the public for the first time.

Cairns Group: ministerial statement (WTO)

Extract: We express our strong disappointment that, despite continued efforts by Members and by the Cairns Group in particular, it has not been possible to achieve convergence around outcomes in the areas of agricultural market access and agricultural domestic support ahead of MC10. We stress the fundamental need to address these major unresolved issues as a priority post-Nairobi, in the interests of all Members. We affirm our willingness to continue working with all WTO Members to explore any and all constructive, practical and pragmatic negotiating approaches to find solutions to these issues. We affirm the Cairns Group's willingness and capacity to play a leading role in this. We note that protectionist pressures continue to pose a threat to our shared objective of fair and market-oriented agricultural trade, and call on all WTO Members to put this goal foremost in future negotiations, as well as the ongoing need to ensure compliance with current rules in WTO.

Group of Small, Vulnerable Economies: statement

Extract: Call for the priorities of SVEs to be duly addressed in all areas of the negotiations and regular work. Reaffirm the need for special consideration and targeted assistance to be given to SVEs, inter alia, in the areas of Aid for Trade, Trade and Transfer of Technology; Trade Facilitation, Trade Finance and Development Assistance which are priorities for special consideration by the WTO and anticipate the appropriate attention to be paid to these issues in the on-going work of the WTO.

African Group, China, Ecuador, India and Venezuela: statement

Extract: Further we recognize that a comprehensive conclusion of the DDA with economically meaningful and balanced outcomes will provide impetus to global trade liberalization and facilitation, correct the development deficit in the rules resulting from the previous rounds of multilateral trade negotiations and improve the trading prospects of developing Members, and enhance the primary role of the WTO in global trade governance. We need to redouble our efforts to enable us to proceed towards the full, successful and multilateral conclusion of the negotiations pursuant to paragraphs 45, 47 and 48 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration in fulfilment of the commitments we took at Doha.

India, 46 others issue joint ministerial statement for continuation of Doha round (The Hindu)

WTO members urged to crown successful year of multilateral diplomacy with Nairobi deal(WTO)

WTO: China to blame for delayed tariffs deal on IT products (The East African)

Poor countries urged to look elsewhere for food security deal (Business Daily)

WTO talks agenda favours rich nations, protesting South Korean farmers say (Daily Nation)

ITC, EAC launch new project to boost African Trade (EAC)

Specifically the project aims to boost the competitiveness of EAC-based small and medium-sized enterprises, enabling them to step up intra-and inter-regional trade. The project will have a strong focus on women’s economic empowerment, and will also support wider private-sector development in the EAC to spur deeper economic integration, including in agriculture, information and communication technologies, and tourism. “Regional integration led by the private sector is a powerful vehicle for boosting growth, creating jobs and promoting economic development”, Ms González said. “Enabling the private sector and policymakers to take advantage of trade opportunities is at the heart of what ITC does. We are looking forward to doing this in collaboration with the EAC, and to ensuring sustainable growth for East African countries and their SMEs”.

Kenya registers Sh2b drop in exports to Uganda (Daily Nation)

The value of exports to the East African country touched a record high in July at Sh9.45 billion. Analysts have attributed the drop in trade between Kenya and Uganda to the implementation of the single customs territory (SCT) that has made it possible for Uganda to make direct imports, and geopolitics that has restricted entry of some Kenyan goods to the neighbouring market. [For the data see Table 13(a): major destinations of domestic exports, in, Leading Economic Indicators October 2015]

South Sudan devalues currency by 84% as dollar peg abandoned (Bloomberg)

India: Merchandise exports fall for 12th straight month in November (Livemint)

Indian exports fell by 24.4% in November, dropping to $20bn mainly on account of a sharp fall in shipments of petroleum products, engineering products, gems and jewellery and oil meals. Exports had contracted by 17.5% the previous month. Imports also fell sharply by 30% in November to $29.7bn, led by a fall in both oil and non-oil imports. Almost all categories of imported items, excluding pulses, fruits and vegetables and electronic goods, saw a contraction in November. [Ministry of Commerce statement]

Facilitating the participation of Landlocked Developing Countries in commodity value chains (UNCTAD)

Primary commodities accounted for more than half of the exports of 27 out of 32 LLDCs in 2011–2013, and resource-based goods, that is to say, primary goods and resource-based manufactures, accounted for some three quarters of all exports of goods and services of LLDCs as a group. During the same period, the median share of exports represented by primary commodities among those countries stood at 84.7%. From 1995 to 1997, the same figure was 83.2 per cent. Hence, over time, the degree and extent of commodity dependence has increased in those countries with little or no sign of diversification of exports. Further, they seem to be more commodity dependent than transit developing countries and other developing countries: the median share in 2011–2014 among transit countries was 76.7%, compared with 66.2% among other developing countries. The question is, to what extent does the state of being landlocked keep LLDCs in the production and export of primary commodities?

Global private participation in infrastructure: update (World Bank)

Total private infrastructure investments for the energy, transport, and water sectors in 139 emerging economies dropped by more than half, from $53 billion in first six months of 2014 to $25 billion in the first six months of 2015, mainly due to a decline in the number of projects in Brazil, China, and India. Investments in other countries remained steady. The top countries by private investment totals were South Africa, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, and Brazil. These five countries together attracted $11.9 billion, representing 47 percent of global commitments in the developing world in the first half of 2015. Regionally, Latin America and the Caribbean region continued to lead, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and Pacific, South Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa: Sub-Saharan Africa jumped from last place to second place as the region successfully closed on US$4.1 billion in 17 projects, for 16% of the global total. Investment was driven mainly by South Africa’s REIPPP, which had 16 of the region’s 17 projects. Half the deals were solar projects totaling US$2.4 billion. The largest deal was the US$900 million Xina Solar One CSP in the Northern Cape Province, designed to power 90,000 households with clean energy. The only non-South African project was Senegal’s 54MW Cap des Biches heavy fuel oil-fired combined-cycle thermal power generation facility. The US$134 million BOO greenfield deal was sponsored by ContourGlobal, which signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with the with Senegalese national utility company, Société Nationale d’Electricité du Sénégal (SENELEC). The top five deals in Sub-Saharan Africa are all in South Africa. [Download]

Djibouti: Article IV Consultation (IMF)

The government of Djibouti has launched an ambitious debt-financed investment program that would spur economic growth but also exacerbate fiscal and external debt vulnerabilities when there is already a high risk of debt distress. The authorities consider that this program is the only path towards reducing widespread poverty and unemployment; Djibouti remains critically dependent on port services and lacks natural resources and a viable agricultural sector. They concur with staff that strong growth and fiscal reform are essential to generate the substantial revenues required to service the public debt and realize the benefits of their investment plans.

Missing the boat?: the cost of postponing the Lomé maritime summit (ISS)

The Lomé summit was supposed to provide a progress update on implementing regional measures to combat illicit activities at sea, with a focus on the 2009 Djibouti and 2013 Yaoundé codes of conduct, adopted primarily to tackle piracy along the Somali coast and in the Gulf of Guinea. West and Central African heads of state had agreed that the Yaoundé code of conduct would be binding as of June 2016. Lomé would have been a decisive step before the next meeting on this code.

Illicit trade sectoral studies: request for consultants (AfDB): wildlife and wildlife products, illicit fisheries and the illicit trade in marine resources, illicit trade in timber and non-timber forest products

Announcement: The Global African Investment Summit 2016 - Transforming African economies for global competitiveness

ECOWAS Commission: end of year remarks by President Ouedraogo

EU appeals ECJ annulment of EU-Morocco Free Trade deal (WSRW)

Action Plan of the Human Rights Strategy for Africa: update on transitional justice issues (AU)

For first time, selection of next UN Secretary-General will include input from all Member States (UN)

World Summit on the Information Society: update (UN)

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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)