Kampala — Cabinet has approved the ratification of the EAC-COMESA-SADC Tripartite Free Area Agreement (FTA), paving way for the implementation of the Agreement. In a Cabinet meeting that took place on Friday 4th August 2017, members unanimously agreed that Uganda was ready to start the implementation of the Tripartite FTA which will open up a wider market for Uganda's products and services in 26 African countries. The products for export will include agricultural products, sugar, tea, coffee and livestock products. The Tripartite FTA represents an integrated market of 26 countries with a combined population of 632 million people which is 57% of Africa's population; and with a total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD$ 1.3 Trillion, contributing 58% of Africa's GDP.  This is a large area that provides expanded trade opportunities to Uganda's Private Sector. Appearing before Cabinet, Trade Minister Amelia Kyambadde said during the recent Tripartite FTA meeting that took place in Kampala in July 2017, the three regional blocs (EAC-COMESA-SADC) finalized and the adopted the remaining annexes on the Rules of Origin, Trade Remedies and Dispute Settlement, thus producing a full Tripartite Agreement. During the same meeting, South Africa signed the Tripartite Agreement, bringing the total number of countries that have signed to 19 out of 26. "Now that the Republic of South Africa has signed the agreement and is in the process of ratifying it, we see no reason not to ratify" said Kyambadde. Kyambadde says Uganda stands to benefit greatly from the Tripartite FTA given the...

US President Donald Trump barely mentioned Africa or trade with the continent during his whirlwind campaign and has been mostly silent about the region since taking office. But the annual African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) forum being held in the Togolese capital Lome this week will bring together top US officials and African ministers. The gathering will finally shine a light on Trump's policies toward the region of 1.2 billion people. What is the African Growth and Opportunity Act? It was a trade deal inked between the United States and eligible African countries nations under Bill Clinton's presidency and enacted in 2000. It gives 39 African nations duty-free access to the US market for about 6,500 products including textiles, cars, fruit and wine. Those countries permitted to participate in AGOA are obliged to prove that they are making efforts to improve human rights, the rule of law and worker protections. Is Trump getting involved in Africa? Early signs were not good for the 45th president's interest in trade with the continent. He spoke regularly on the campaign trail about the need to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and to get a better deal with China -- but Africa did not feature in his top priorities. But he has now sent his top trade negotiator Robert Lighthizer to Lome for the two-day meeting that concludes on Thursday along with a top level negotiating team. Trump himself will not attend the talks. A good deal for Africans? When asked...

A senior US trade official on Thursday urged three East African Community countries to “revisit” their collective ban on used-clothing imports. Arguments in support of the ban put forward by Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda “are not supported by data or research,” said Ms Constance Hamilton, acting assistant US trade representative for Africa. Ms Hamilton’s comments seemed to suggest that the Trump administration is siding with a US business association that claims the three countries are in violation of eligibility criteria for the preferential trade programme known as Agoa. The African Growth and Opportunities Act stipulates that participating countries must eliminate “barriers to US trade” or be making progress in that direction. The US-based Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (Smart) says the three-year phase out of used-clothing imports, commonly known as mitumba, amounts to such a barrier. Smart petitioned US trade officials in March to exclude Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda from the Agoa provision. The three-year phase-out of mitumba jeopardises 40,000 jobs in the US recycled-clothing industry, according to Smart. Ms Hamilton cited that figure during a press teleconference on Thursday, and added that many of the threatened jobs are with small firms that have only “three or four employees.” Kenya had initially agreed to implement the EAC ban on mitumba, but rescinded the decision. Source: Daily Nation

Addis ababa – Ethiopia is looking to promote its horticulture products in China and different other markets to increase export volumes and revenue, the Horticulture Producers and Exporters Association (EHPEA) has said. The association said various endeavours are already going on to help achieve this goal. Tewodros Zewdie, the EHPEA executive director, told Xinhua on Wednesday that the country’s export performance of the flower sector in the last few years has shown remarkable progress, but the fruits and vegetables sector is not growing that much compared to its potential. Tewodros added that the association is working with the public and private stakeholders to address the challenges related to logistics issues, among others. “We are aggressively promoting our products in Europe, and the feedback from the buyers is quite good. Some promotion activities are also going on in China. We can also benefit from the market opportunity in the Middle East,” he said. Ethiopia earned about $300 million from export of fruits and vegetables in the last year fiscal year. Source: New Times

The second edition of the annual Africa 2017, a high-level forum offering participants an unparalleled platform for promoting trade and investment within Africa, will take place on December 7-9, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the organisers announced yesterday. This year’s event will kick-off with a Young Entrepreneurs Day (YED), which will bring together emerging and established entrepreneurs, business mentors, start-up hubs, angel investors and venture capital firms to share ideas, network and help drive further the “business ideas of tomorrow”. According to the organisers, the Africa 2017 YED has partnered with top incubators, entrepreneurship programmes and venture capital firms. Organised by Egypt’s Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation of Egypt and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Regional Investment Agency, the three-day conference will discuss key issues like ploicy reforms to improve business and investment climate, among others. It will attract business leaders and policy-makers from across Africa and worldwide, including Heads of State, the statement said. The forum will be held under the patronage of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Dr Sahar Nasr, Egypt’s Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, reiterated the African opportunity based on business-minded reforms taking place across the continent. “The forum seeks to stimulate investments into the continent, and especially cross-border investments. In Egypt, we have undertaken an ambitious economic reform programme, with improving the business environment and overall country competitiveness as the key ingredient,” Nasr said. This forum reinforces Egypt’s commitment to support and enhance the economic and cultural integration of Africa...

Regional private equity fund Aureos East Africa Fund LLC has started the process of exiting its investments in East Africa. The fund which was established by Aureos Capital in 2003, had made several investments in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Its key sectors included banking, manufacturing, tourism, advertising, wholesale and retail. Recently, the fund which is managed by the Abraaj Group announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell its entire 5.53 per cent (6.83 million shares) stake in the clothing retailer Deacons East Africa Plc. The value of the transactions is yet to be made public but conservative estimates based on the current  market value of the company’s stock on the Nairobi Securities Exchange puts the price  at around  Ksh24 million ($240,000). The share sell-purchase transaction which is still subject to regulatory approval will be executed off the NSE as a private transaction. The fund has also invested in the cement firm Athi River Mining, Bank of Africa, Athi River Steel Plant, Cable Holdings Ltd, Dorini (Tourism) and advertising firm Ovidian. In Uganda and Tanzania, the fund has invested in the Bank of Africa (Uganda) and Bank of Africa (Tanzania). The $40 million fund is incorporated in Mauritius and seeks to make equity and quasi-equity investments in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with strong potential for profitable growth and regional expansion. Aureos seeks to invest in East Africa with a focus on Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, with investments of between $0.5 million and $4 million per transaction. It holds its investments for...

Five years ago, a season like this, John Losunyen was queuing for relief food somewhere in Isiolo county , in the central part of northeastern Kenya. Luckily, today, that is not the case as he is currently tending to his tomatoes on a two and a half acre farm where he also rears poultry and keeps cows. With training and the use of mobile phone technology to access markets and get farming information, Mr Losunyen has been able to fend for his family. The use of mobile phone applications in agriculture is changing lives by providing crucial and handy information which farmers are using to boost the productivity of many farmers across the region. Data shows that demand for food is set to grow as the global population increases, more people live better lives as their economic situations and standards of living improve, couple with increased urbanisation. There is a need to innovate to feed this population and one of the market leaders in innovation in agriculture is a United States global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future, which come with advancements that are immensely changing the lives of farmers in East Africa. iProcure From technological innovations, like iProcure Ltd, smallholder farmers are able to get quality inputs for better productivity. Through the last mile distribution of farming inputs, iProcure is a digital platform through which farmers can order for inputs and have them delivered through co-operatives to ensure that they get genuine and affordable inputs. iprocure’s ojective...

Kenya’s effort to seal loopholes for dumping and tax leakage have run into legal headwinds after local firms moved to court to block the joint deal with Uganda and Rwanda. The firms which offer cargo tracking services in Kenya have sued seeking to block the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) from implementing its e-tracking system in partnership with the two landlocked neighbours. The nine firms through the Electronic Cargo Tracking System Providers Association of Kenya claim that the KRA has stabbed them in the back by introducing the Regional Electronic Tracking System (Rects) which is already on a pilot phase in Kenya. The platform, launched by the KRA in March, allows the real-time tracking of cargo from Mombasa to its final destination. The new system will allow Uganda and Rwanda’s tax collection organs to also monitor the cargo. The KRA in March announced that the new cargo tracking system would be offered to transporters for free, a move that has sparked the vicious war with firms currently providing the monitoring services at a fee. The taxman in its response says that the system’s introduction was necessary to reduce dumping and diversion of goods in transit, give the taxman more control over data of cargo being transported and to reduce paperwork while maximising use of technology. But the lobby group says the KRA in February assured its members that the new regional system would only be used occasionally for arming sensitive cargo, and even invited it to the launch of the platform....

Negotiations for the creation of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) will be finalised at the end of October. The TFTA brings together 26 countries— partner states of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community. The TFTA Council of Ministers, in their recent meeting held in Kampala on July 7, set a new timeframe of three months to clear outstanding issues, especially on tariffs and ratification of the agreement by the member countries. At the launch of the TFTA on June 10, 2015 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, the heads of state set a timeframe of 12 months for finalising the negotiations, but by October 2016, there were outstanding issues, prompting the ministers extend the deadline to April 2017. That, too, was missed. Now, Francis Mangeni, director of Trade and Customs at Comesa, says the October 30 deadline must be met, as the TFTA faces an existential risk from the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) expected to be launched by the end of the year. “Some countries argue that with the 55-member CFTA, the TFTA is unnecessary,” said Dr Mangeni. “Besides, they add, the TFTA is not as ambitious as the CFTA.” At the Kampala meeting, the ministers agreed on the rules of origin, trade remedies and dispute settlement mechanisms. “The adoption of these three outstanding issues represented a milestone in the tripartite negotiations, as it removed the last obstacle to signing and ratifying the agreement,” Dr Mangeni said....

The cost of the August 8 General Election on Kenya’s economy has started to emerge, with firms scaling down production, investors holding on to their cash and neighbouring countries redirecting their cargo to Tanzanian ports, away from Mombasa. Foreign governments, especially in the West, driven by uncertainty, have stepped up travel advisories to their citizens in the country and those intending to visit, warning that “in the past, some political protests, rallies and demonstrations have turned violent.” International organisations whose business is outside the provision of humanitarian services and foreign firms have given their staff permission to leave for neighbouring countries a week before and stay until a week after the elections, citing uncertainty over the poll, whose main contenders are Jubilee’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and National Super Alliance’s Raila Odinga. GRIM PICTURE Sources in the business community who sought anonymity for fear of being seen to be painting a grim picture over the elections said a majority of companies had scaled down production, while investors are holding onto their finances awaiting the outcome of the elections. They were particular that banks, which are normally hard hit with uncertainty, had limited the amount of loans lent to individuals until after the elections, with one of the sources saying they were lending out a maximum of Sh5 million. However, businessman Vimal Shah played down fears within the business community, saying: “So far, so good. I don’t know of any business that has suffered as a result of the election fever. People...