Despite popular opinion, Africa has been very active on the international trading stage, though results have been disappointing. At the ministerial conference in Bali, Indonesia in 2013, African countries failed to push for their needs. After progress and losses, what is the place of Africa in the multilateral trading system as the continent heads into the WTO ministerial conference in Nairobi, Kenya?
 As the world is rushing towards regional and mega-regional trade agreements, it is necessary to review the place and role of the African continent in all of its evolutions. These have already transformed international trade relations and set the next boundaries of the global economic governance system. Africa’s place in the multilateral trading system has often received special attention, even though ithas mostly focused on the contextual and factual analysis of the weakness of the continent’s contribution to global commercial transactions or the vagaries of the participation of African states in trade negotiations. There has been more than enough criticism suggesting that Africa is not making sufficient effort to take part in international trade. On the contrary, African countries merit a spotlight on their significant progress to open up to trade. A continent that has come a long way Africa’s place in the international trading system has often been simplified to a single statistic: less than 2 percent of international trade. The analyses that support the theory that African countries barely participate in international trade are mostly based on a quantitative approach. However, such a static approach hides...

EXPORTS from East African Community bloc to the United States, under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, will be increased by 50 per cent in five years, an official of the East Africa Trade and Investment Hub said yesterday. The director for trade promotion and AGOA Finn Holm-Olsen said they will also bring in $100 million (Sh12.02 billion) in new investment to the region, which will create about 10,000 jobs in the period through to 2019. He said the programme sponsored by the USAid will enable the business community in Kenya and the region to fully utilise AGOA. “We are looking to increase exports from the region to the US by 50 per cent. The $100 million comprises of new investments coming in and expansion of current businesses,” he said in an interview during a national capacity building forum to educate micro, small and medium-sized enterprises on the benefits of AGOA, in Nairobi. “In one year alone, the project has supported $81 million (Sh8.28 billion) in exports to the US under the AGOA,” he said. The AGOA Act provides African countries with free access to the US market. Kenya has mainly been exporting textiles and apparels, leather and fisheries, and processed agricultural products. Micro and Small Enterprises Authority chief executive Patrick Mwangi said many MSMEs have not benefited in the AGOA framework due to lack of information. He said most of the products that are being exported to the US under the AGOA are from the various export processing zones...

South Sudan will push for admission into the East African Community at the Heads of State Summit in two weeks time, despite having not met all the eligibility criteria. Government officials argue that Juba has already opened its economy to EAC members though questions on governance, democracy, human rights and security linger. Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin, who led a high level ministerial committee to the latest EAC session on South Sudan accession in mid-October, said that a technical committee had recommended that Juba “is now qualified” to join the bloc. The EastAfrican was unable to independently verify this because the committee’s report is being kept under wraps until it is presented to the EAC Council of Ministers meeting in November 15. “It is just like when Burundi and Rwanda were admitted in June 2007 while they had similar challenges, and managed to solve them from within,” said Dr Benjamin. “We believe that South Sudan has a better chance of resolving its challenges faster and more effectively as a member of the EAC.” In a briefing to parliament on October 26, the presidential advisor for economic affairs and co-chair of the High Level Committee on South Sudan Accession to the EAC, Aggrey Tisa Sabuni, said that the recommendations clearly state that there is a strong push by the ministers of EAC affairs for South Sudan to be admitted into the regional bloc within the shortest time possible. “While the ultimate decision lies with the heads of state, they will almost...

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) officials have lauded Rwandan cross-border transporters for embracing the yellow card scheme, noting that it has helped local logistics firms to reduce costs, and ease movement of goods and persons within the region. Sindiso Ngwenya, the COMESA secretary general, said the number of subscribers under the scheme is growing annually, adding that the amount of claim compensations paid to road accident victims has also gone up. "Through the yellow card scheme, COMESA has contributed to region's competitiveness by reducing cross-border transport and transaction costs... It saves transporters and business community time and money," he added. This was in a speech read for him by COMESA's Berhane Gidy during the group's meeting on regional third party motor vehicle insurance in Kigali last week. The meeting attracted participants from all the 19 COMESA countries. The yellow card scheme is a regional third party motor vehicle insurance scheme for medical expenses resulting from road traffic accidents caused by visiting motorists. It also offers emergency medical cover for the driver and passengers of foreign trucks involved in traffic accidents. Speaking at the conference, Emmanuel Hategeka, the trade and industry ministry permanent secretary, said economic integration is essential to support the private sector, improve operations and ease cost of doing business. He added that COMESA has created a favourable legal, economic, political and social environment, "which opens up tremendous opportunities for business". Hategeka said major economic reforms have been implemented with the trade bloc, but called...

NAIROBI: Kenya's economy is not all doom and gloom, after all. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country's growth prospects and debt/gross domestic product (GDP) ratio are within acceptable levels. IMF further asserts that Kenya's current and projected growth prospects are better than those of her peers in the sub-Saharan African region. The Bretton Woods institution has tipped sub-Saharan Africa's economy to expand at 4.5 per cent in 2015. The institution has since downgraded Kenya's GDP growth for 2015 from 6.9 per cent to 6.5 per cent. Speaking during the launch of the Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya's IMF Resident Representative Armando Morales, downplayed fears that the country's debt-to-GDP ratio was spiraling out of control. "Debt in Kenya is classified by the IMF as low-distress risk. And to move to distress, you have to move through two other categories - moderate risk and high risk, and Kenya is below that. So it is very unlikely that the country will face a situation of distress in the coming years," said Mr Morales. no alarming bells He added the country's deficit is not alarming. He said:  "As long as the deficits for this year and the coming fiscal years remain projected at the same levels, then it is sustainable." He revealed that IMF has a programme in place to review the country's progress on maintenance of deficit.Morales' position was supported by Chris Kiptoo of Trademark East Africa who asked the Government to find a way to counter the...

Regional revenue bodies have been urged to embrace technology to solve some of the challenges facing the implementation of the single customs territory initiatives. Raphael Tugirumuremyi, the commissioner of customs at Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), said technology is essential in solving problems in revenue collection on the continent and facilitating trade. Tugirumuremyi was speaking at the Eastern Africa Regional Technical Assistance  (Afritac East) regional workshop on the implementation of single customs initiative in Kigali last week. The workshop brought together different revenue authority officers from eight countries - Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, Malawi, Burundi, and hosts Rwanda. Tugirumuremyi was hopeful that the training would enable regional customs officers to use the knowledge acquired to adopt ICTs in their operations, saying these are important to improve customs operations and help drive regional development agenda. Patrick Chisasa from the Malawi Revenue Authority said the knowledge acquired would help them devise mechanisms to reduce the previous multiple transactions by businesses in customs clearance. “Different customs procedures are being implemented under multiple transactions which is costly, but we expect that costs will be reduced as long as we are looking forward to join the regional single customs,” Chisasa said during the workshop. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) AFRITAC East Centre sponsored the workshop. The single customs territory initiative was launched by East African Community countries in September 2013. The bloc’s neighbours, including Zambia, Ethiopia and Malawi, are looking to learn its operation as they seek to join the initiative. Source:  New Times

Enligt FN:s världshandelsorganisation WTO finns det en stark koppling mellan ökad internationell handel, fler kvinnor i exportverksamheter och högre löner. Analyser av länderna i Östafrika pekar på att varje lands ekonomiska utveckling är direkt kopplat till kvinnornas företagande och till ökad handel med omvärlden.   Med stöd av den holländska regeringen och Kenyas utrikesminister Amina Mohammed, lanserade organisationen TMA nyligen "Women and Trade Programme" på 4,5 miljoner dollar fram till december 2016. Organisationen TMA eller Trade Mark East Africa arbetar för ett ökat välstånd i Östafrika genom ökad handel. Programmet riktar sig inledningsvis till 25 000 kvinnor och målet är att öka inkomsterna och förbättra försörjningen för kvinnor verksamma i handel samt i kvinnoägda företag. Arbetet fokuseras på att undanröja alla de formella och praktiska hinder som finns i samband med företagande och exportverksamhet vilket i sin tur kommer att ge Östafrikas kvinnor en tyngd och en mycket starkare röst i samhället.  I många afrikanska länder är kvinnor ofta småbönder som producerar till exempel majs, kassava, bomull och ris. Dessa kvinnor har en enorm potential för att bidra till ökad handel mellan de afrikanska länderna och med den globala marknaden. Under 2010 utgjorde kvinnor i utvecklingsländer 43 procent av arbetskraften inom jordbruket. Undersökningar visar att informell gränsöverskridande handel, som till stor del utförs av kvinnor, utgör en betydande del av den regionala gränsöverskridande handeln söder om Sahara. I Uganda står den informella exporten till de fem grannländerna för 231 700 000 dollar under 2006, vilket motsvarar 86 procent av Ugandas...

Recently, you reported that the latest World Bank Africa Pulse report placed Rwanda and Tanzania as rapidly growing economies at above 7%. This maybe source, but it still cannot explain why jobs are so hard to find, even for graduates. If growth is measured on jobs created then probably we may not be doing so well and something is wrong. Source: East African Business Week

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - The Sub-Saharan Africa economies continue to implement reforms to improve the business climate for domestic entrepreneurs, with members of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) particularly active during the past year, says the World Bank Group’s annual ease of doing business measurement.  The ‘Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency’ report, released last week, records a total of 69 reforms in 35 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Of these, 14 of OHADA’s 17 member countries implemented 29 reforms. The report said reforms implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for about 30% of the 231 reforms implemented worldwide during the past year.  The report which was released by the World Bank last week said the region also boasted half of the world’s top 10 improvers, i.e. countries that implemented at least three reforms and moved up on the global rankings scale, with Uganda, Kenya, Mauritania, Benin and Senegal. “The region stood out in implementing reforms under the Getting Credit indicator. Of the 32 reforms made globally, 14 were carried out in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Kenya and Uganda making significant progress,” it stated. “Despite great improvements, governments in Sub-Saharan Africa will need to continue working on closing the gap in many key areas that impact the ease of doing business, especially increasing access to reliable electricity and providing effective commercial dispute resolution – two areas where the region scores the lowest globally,” said Rita Ramalho, Manager of the Doing Business project. On Getting Electricity,...

Kenya, as well as the other East African Community (EAC) countries, is fast emerging as an investment destination for multinational companies, following the establishment of a common market in 2010. The common market is attractive to investors because it currently has more than 153 million consumers. The European Union has been negotiating a bilateral agreement with the EAC — the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that could greatly impact the EAC market structure. Local firms stand to lose to foreign companies with greater capacity under the agreement in sectors such as agriculture, retail, horticulture, fisheries, textile and clothing, dairy, and meat if adequate safeguards are not established under the agreement. This brings to light the need to enhance a competitive economy within the EAC though the implementation of a regional competition law regime to protect consumers and small enterprises from unfair business practices. A competitive market would mean more choice, better quality and lower priced products for consumers, and easier market access for new firms. Moreover, it would mean that measures would be put in place to curb abuse of dominance, market sharing, and concentrated mergers and acquisitions by firms with substantial market share. The most effective way to achieve this would be for the EAC member states to enforce regional competition legislation and encourage the enactment of national competition laws and establishment of independent competition agencies. The EAC Competition Act, 2006 has already been ratified by member states, and national competition legislation enacted in all member countries except Burundi and...