COVID-19 and the African trade dynamics Just like other countries in the world, African states were not prepared for the spread of the novel coronavirus. Interestingly and as expected, two powerful African states, Egypt and Nigeria, recorded the first cases of the virus in Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Of 54 countries in Africa, 53 countries have recorded cases of the virus and only Lesotho is yet to record any. This record in Lesotho has perhaps been linked to a lack of testing materials and not that the country is indeed free from the virus. Source: Wikipedia Trade in Africa has primarily been a case of a producer exporting raw materials to foreign countries for production and the original producer importing the finished products. This situation has seen Africa contribute so much to global trade than it is given credit for. Indeed, Africans have a penchant for foreign goods, without necessarily producing the same goods. Producers who have made what can be referred to as “Made in Africa” products have not reaped much profit as much as their foreign counterparts because the African market is saturated with foreign products. For instance, 75% of the world’s cocoa is sourced from Africa yet Africa imports most of its chocolates. The oil-producing states in Africa contribute significantly to global crude but almost all petroleum products in Africa are imported. Source: World Bank The Economic Development in Africa Report 2019 suggests that the total trade record from Africa to the rest of the world was about US$760 billion between 2015 and 2017 and contributed between 80-90%...

With the current fast-changing developments, policy makers need to know what is happening to the economy in real time, but they often must settle for data telling them what happened many weeks ago. And international trade, which links countries through a complex web of supply chains, is an area where timely information is especially valuable from a global perspective. Most trade takes place by sea, and – for navigational safety purposes – virtually all cargo ships report their position, speed, and other information many times a day. A new IMF methodology using these data can help better inform us how international trade is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on machine-learning techniques, we can provide better answers to simple questions such as: How big is the drop in trade activity? Should it be attributed mostly to exports or to imports? A new approach Using over one billion messages from ships over a period of five years, the newly-developed methodology closely replicates official trade statistics for many countries and for the world in aggregate. It is available at a daily frequency in real time, while official statistics are typically delayed by many weeks. At the global level, our indicators built from ships’ radio signals closely approximate monthly official trade statistics (with a correlation of nearly 0.9 in levels, and around 0.4 in quarter-on-quarter growth rates). The top panel of our Chart of the Week shows a dramatic fall in Chinese exports in the wake of initial lockdown measures to contain the spread of the...

RWANDA – Following a successful auction of Rwandan coffee on China’s e-commerce platform, organized by the Alibaba group, Rwanda is set to as well auction Chilli on the electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP). Rwanda and the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2018 signed an agreement that opened doors for small businesses in Africa to take part in the cross-border electronic trade by availing their products to the Chinese market through Tmall, a subsidiary online platform of Alibaba. Last week, about 1.5 tonnes of roasted Rwandan coffee beans from Gorilla Coffee brand were sold within a minute during an online live streaming event which had about 20 million fans. This was the second time for such an event to be organised by the Rwandan embassy in China. Earlier this year, in a similar event held in Hangzhou City, up to 2,000 packets of Rwandan coffee was sold in about 10 minutes. Organised by the Alibaba Group, the online events have been aiming to promote Rwandan coffee which is available on the Chinese e-commerce market. In an interview with The New Times, James Kimonyo Rwanda’s Ambassador to China hinted that they are looking at making an event for chilli. “We are looking at so many things to do with Rwanda and we are happy that coffee has become a signature export crop,” he said, adding; “In fact I should have mentioned that at some point we will do another event on Rwanda chili, it is becoming very popular in Tmall.” In the...

According to the latest statistics released by the National Agriculture Export Development Board, Rwanda has exported more than 9,317 tonnes of processed tea, worth more than $27.6 million between January and March 2020. Cynthia Uwacu, Export Market Development and Innovation Division Manager at the National Agriculture Export Development Board spoke to CNBC Africa for more. Watch Video here Source: CNBC Africa

The UN Economic Commission for Africa is helping to bring unique African products and their promoters to the platform in a practical COVID-19 response move Imagine using one second to sell three thousand (3000) bags of a coffee produce which lay fallow hitherto in storehouses in Rwanda for months due to freighting stand-stills caused by the COVID-19 global lockdown! This is what happened on 14 May 2020 during a livestream by coordinated by the Alibaba Business Group to position small-scale world brands on the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), a the six-year-old initiative which facilitates business-to-consumer (B2C) sales. The UN Economic Commission for Africa is helping to bring unique African products and their promoters to the platform in a practical COVID-19 response move. The sale was made by the Rwandan brand known as Gorilla's Coffee whose CEO, Mr. David Ngarabe, rejoiced at the feat following months of slack business as the COVID-19 lockdowns ruptured the supply chains especially to cafés and hotels. The cash-in is explained in terms of the wide reach to customers especially in China via the eWTP whose huge demand, in terms of economies of scale, would now lower overall freighting costs for the supplies. Ms. Vera Songwe, Under-Secretary-General of United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), who addressed participants of the livestream from Addis Ababa, said the Commission was taking action to getting many more small brands from Africa with distinct products to access the platform and make sales during and after the current health crisis....

Rwanda and Tanzania are set to reach an agreement on the way forward on the issue of cross-border trucks whose movement has been hampered by measures to curb the spread of New Coronavirus.  On Tuesday President Paul Kagame, the sitting Chairman of the East African Community (EAC), chaired a virtual Consultative Meeting with Heads of State of Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan on the regional response to COVID-19 during which the countries agreed to handle cross-border transmission together.  Though the meeting was not attended by Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli, Rwanda and Tanzania have been working to address the border stalemate that resulted from new measures imposed by Rwanda to minimise cross-border infections which are attributed to truck drivers and their assistants.  The measures would see driver’s handover the trucks to their Rwandan counterparts at border points who would then ferry the goods to their final destination. The move was met by resistance as some drivers remained adamant to handover their vehicles.  Videos of Tanzanian drivers protesting in Benaco, blocking Rwandan drivers from proceeding to Dar es Salaam until Rwanda allows them to enter circulated on social media but Rwanda maintained the measure which has since seen the decline in cross-border transmission of COVID-19. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Dr. Vincent Biruta told KT Press on Thursday that Tanzania and Rwanda would arrive on an agreement on Friday. He however said the issue on Kagitumba One Stop Border Post has been resolved and trucks from Kenya have begun...



Global trade is predicted to fall by a record 27% in the second quarter of 2020, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), an organisation that tracks trade flows. This comes after the coronavirus pandemic distorted the supply and demand for products across the world leading to a severe decline in world trade. There has also been a slump in the export of cars, machine parts, and oil, among other global exports. Almost every category of goods is expected to suffer a fall in trade over the coming months, adding to a 3% decline in the first quarter of the year. According to UNCTAD, the report revealed a huge shock to the global economy from the Covid-19 pandemic. China was the first country to report a decline in trade ahead of a lockdown put in place by the authorities in Beijing in February. The country’s economy shrunk by 6.8% percent in the first quarter of this year. However, China also reported that her trade and Africa plummeted by around 14 per cent estimated at $41 billion in the first three months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, according to official figures released by China’s General Administration of Customs. The rest of the developed world followed in March when similar lockdowns were announced. Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that a previous forecast for an unprecedented decline in global GDP growth of 3% this year, the worst since the 1930s depression era, was looking optimistic. The...

The acting Executive Director of the International Trade Centre, Dorothy Tembo says the coronavirus pandemic could represent a risk for the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, but African leaders could also turn that into an opportunity for stronger collaboration if specific policies are fast-tracked. She joins CNBC Africa’s Kenneth Igbomor for more insight on this discussion.   Source: CNBC Africa

With the July date for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) now highly uncertain, a survey on individual country preparedness shows that commitment and readiness is below 50 per cent. According to The AfCFTA Year Zero report published this month by AfroChampions, the average level of commitment is 44.48 per cent and implementation readiness is 49.15 per cent. Afrochampions was commissioned by the AfCFTA secretariat to do the assessment early this year and was completed before the Covid-19 struck. More than half the countries are yet to ratify the AfCFTA, despite the impressive signings and speedy number of ratifications that launched the agreement. Almost all countries are lagging behind in the completion of National AfCFTA Implementation Strategies Trading, which was scheduled to start this July. EAST AND WEST LEADING The report also ranks East and West African countries as most committed in the operationalisation of the AfCFTA, with Rwanda ranked the most committed at 83.93 per cent, and Eritrea the least, scoring 0.85 per cent. Other East African countries ranked in the top 10 are Uganda (fourth), Kenya (seventh) and Djibouti (ninth). The other five slots are taken by the West African countries of Mali (second), Togo (third), Ghana (fifth), Niger (sixth) and Senegal (eighth). Fifty-five African countries (including those that are yet to ratify the agreement) were rated and ranked based on four main indicators and 10 sub-indicators. The indicators used were county's commitment to AfCFTA, which include signing and ratification of the agreement and...