n November 15, 15 countries in East Asia and the Pacific signed the Regional Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), creating the world’s largest trading bloc. This signing arguably marks one of the most remarkable responses of global leaders to the global protectionist trends witnessed since 2016. RCEP negotiations started in 2012 with 16 countries including the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. Even with India’s eventual withdrawal in 2019, the agreement is still the world’s largest, encompassing 30 percent of global GDP and 27 percent of global merchandise trade (Figure 1). RCEP also comprises over 18 percent of services trade and 19 percent of foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows. Driven by China, the RCEP trade bloc has gained prominence in global trade and investment, and has outstripped the growth of large high-income trade blocs over the past decades. The remarkable growth of China and Southeast Asian economies is reflected in the rising share of the RCEP bloc in global GDP, trade, and FDI over the past two decades (Figure 1). This has also propelled the RCEP to overtake trading blocs, which were much larger at the beginning of the century, including the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the European Union (Figure 2). GOOD NEWS FOR MEMBER COUNTRIES, PARTICULARLY NON-ASEAN RCEP deepens trade and investment relations between member countries mainly through reductions in non-tariff barriers (NTBs) on goods and services trade. The agreement focuses on NTBs as import tariffs were...

In this opinion piece, Prof. Agnes Binagwaho, M.D., MPEd, Ph.D. — vice-chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity in Kigali, Rwanda — and her research associate Kedest Mathewos explain why African countries fared much better than their Western counterparts in the fight against COVID-19. In 2019, the Global Health Security Index ranked countries according to their preparedness for pandemics. The United States was identified as the most prepared country, while most African countries were deemed to be least capable of dealing with any new health threat. Further entrenching this perspective of Africa’s lack of preparedness, Africa as a continent was predicted to have 10 million COVID-19-related deaths. However, this prediction could not have been more wrong, with African countries contributing to only 3.6% of cases and 3.6% of COVID-19 deaths worldwide as of November 13. In the past few months, scientists, global health professionals, and journalists have attempted to explain Africa’s unexpected response to the pandemic. However, these explanations often fail to recognize the reasons behind the prompt response of African countries to the pandemic. Swift response at the continental level Throughout the past 11 months, we have seen that borders do not prevent the spread of this crisis, be it in health or economic sectors. The pandemic, which originated in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has now spread to more than 217 countries and territories to date. The economic crisis has not spared any country, with the global economy expected to shrink by 5.3% this year. In order to provide a concerted response to this global pandemic, African countries leveraged...

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) has validated a roadmap to implement the protocol on free movement of persons, which is expected to take 10 years. This was arrived at a high-level legal and policy experts meeting of the regional body held in Entebbe, Kampala on November 16-17 and was also endorsed by the Igad committee of ambassadors and ministers in charge of migration and labour. Upon adoption by the region's summit, the roadmap will ease cross-border mobility for its 270 million people, improve regional economic integration and development. The roadmap is awaiting adoption by the Igad Council of Ministers and Assembly. The report also said the roadmap needed to be validated by the experts of member states and then submitted to the Igad Council of Ministers and the Assembly as annex to the Protocol. Currently, nationals of the eight Igad member states require visas to travel around the region, but experts say after the 10-year implementation of the roadmap will do away with this. "We are embarking on a historic journey for our region. This process of implementation will be long but very significant," said Fathia Alwan, the Igad director of social development. Facilitating adoption For Kenya and Uganda, the adjustment will be easy as they already apply visa-free travel under different trading blocs such as the EAC and the Comesa that they are members of. Ms Alwan said implementation of the protocol that paves the way for free movement of the largely youthful population seeking social services but...

An official pact that could prevent trade tensions under the soon to be implemented Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is almost ready. This strategic initiative is under the auspices of the African Union and the International Trade Centre that seeks to make key recommendations on the various products and services that could be productive to respective African countries. This is expected to provide solutions to countries in an effort to avoid overlapping of export sector priorities as countries could potentially prioritize similar produce ahead of AfCFTA implementation next year January. Indeed, AfCFTA represents a major opportunity for countries to boost growth, reduce poverty, and broaden economic inclusion, this according to a World Bank report released this year. It added that if the agreement is fully implemented, the trade pact could boost regional income by 7 percent or US$450 billion, speed up wage growth for women, and lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035. Instructively, industry analysts have indicated that the products and services that would be provided by countries under the agreement will be key to boost the expected regional income of US$450 billion. They have suggested that achieving these gains will be particularly important given the economic damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is expected to cause up to US$79 billion in output losses in Africa by the end of 2020. Already, The pandemic has caused major disruptions to trade across the continent. Early this year, the Acting Executive Director of the ITC, Madam...

Digital economy Africa, A report jointly produced by Google and the International Finance Corporation titled e-Conomy Africa 2020  projects that Africa’s internet economy is expected to grow into a $180 billion industry by 2025. This would put the contribution of e-based economic activity on the African continent to 5.2% of GDP by the quarter-turn of the century. The report predicts that Africa’s internet economy will be able to withstand the effects of coronavirus and emerge as a resilient force to drive economic growth on the continent. It notes that opportunities are rife, even with the covid-19 pandemic having affected most economies. This resilience will be based on the rich human resource base in Africa which boasts of polished developers. It anticipates that with the digital revolution in play, governments will catch up and introduce policies to support and foster the growth of internet-based businesses across the continent.   Further, investment in infrastructure that supports technological advancement is expected to be at the fore of African leadership initiatives. The report also envisions an increase in public and private investment into the sector to drive the growth of internet-based products and services in African economies. Several entrepreneurs jumped onto the internet bandwagon thereby unleashing opportunities to fully realize growth in economies, with the effect of creating employment and contributing to providing solutions to the challenges that affect Africa. Digital penetration in SSA growing Source IMF The report acknowledges the rising interest in technology-based startups which increased considerably in 2019 with investments amounting to...

Summary Time is running out for countries to conclude and submit their tariff offers as well as rules of origin, which will govern trade from January 1, 2021. Less than six weeks to the start of trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, time is running out for countries to conclude and submit their tariff offers as well as rules of origin, which will govern trade from January 1, 2021. Only 18 out of the continent’s 55 countries have submitted their tariff offers and rules of origin. The EastAfrican has learnt that a number of countries missed the October 30 deadline to submit their tariff concessions, and have until the December 5 African Union summit to do so, officials said. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles and Sao Tome and Principe have submitted their tariff concessions as they are not part of any Customs Unions or single customs territory. Although Nigeria ratified its membership of AfCFTA on Wednesday, it still has to lodge its tariff concessions and rules of origin before the December 5 deadline. The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the states under the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) have tabled their offers, according to Prudence Sebahizi, the head of AfCFTA Negotiations Support Unit at the African Union. The East African Community, whose members can’t submit offers individually since they apply a Common External Tariff, is yet to respond with a tariff offer. Although we could not immediately establish...

TRADERS from Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi will benefit from training on trade facilitation that seeks to boost knowledge, skills on the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Tanzania was picked to be the first country in the bloc to benefit from the training that is undertaken by the International Trade Centre (ITC) in partnership with the East African Business Council (EABC) and the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF). The workshops that kicked off at Kilimanjaro, Tanzania have been organized as part of the European Union-East African Community Market Access Programme (MARKUP). The East African local business-support associations and traders are being equipped with a comprehensive knowledge of the TFA with a view to identifying obstacles on cross-border and advocate for their removal. The initiative comes in a wake of trade and movement of people's restrictions in some East African Community (EAC) member-states due to Covid-19 pandemic. It saw some countries, excluding Tanzania, undergoing strict lockdowns, closure of businesses that led to paralysis of intra-EAC trade. This initiative has been developed in response to persistent delays and red tape hampering the movement of goods across borders in East Africa. Among the members of the community, inefficient trade procedures and non-tariff barriers represent obstacles to expanding intra-regional trade and deepened regional integration. Trade facilitation - the simplification, modernization and harmonization of export and import processes - has thus become a key issue for the global trade system and regional economic communities, such as the EAC, to create new opportunities...

In another article for nasdaq.com, IOTA co-founder Dominik Schiener explained how Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) will revolutionize the industry and especially the supply chain. As Schiener describes, the supply chain is a constantly moving part of the corporate infrastructure, the pursuit of which is “traditionally a challenge” and “generally known for reactive rather than proactive analysis”. “That will soon change,” says Schiener. DLT can be applied to the traditional supply chain infrastructure to reverse the market logic and create demand chains. Instead of waiting for the market to respond to a product, a demand chain would ideally respond directly and in real time to consumer behavior and link the data back to the actual supply side. In effect, market demand could be met automatically as soon as it exists, rather than waiting for total supply to run out. This would empower businesses to not only have a wealth of supply chain data, but reform their supply chain processes to become more efficient and create a more sustainable future. However, as the IOTA co-founder also emphasizes, this requires consumers to trust the network. Ultimately, consumer transparency can only be implemented in a trustworthy ledger. In return, however, a demand chain would be created, which would mean a “relocation of actual production”. Contrary to the current system, in which supply is produced on the basis of past history, production would be based on demand. Ultimately, a highly effective system of rapid response to demand could be created that can be changed in the middle of...

App helps truckers skirt coronavirus challenges - Aviation tariff row sours German winemakers' sales

The Labour party has urged the UK trade secretary, Liz Truss, to end delays over rollover deals with Kenya and Ghana to prevent them being slapped with high tariffs when the UK leaves the EU on 1 January. Negotiations with Kenya and Ghana have yet to be signed off with only nine weeks to go before the UK’s transition deal with the EU comes to an end, when import charges would be imposed on goods worth £2.6bn from the African countries. Labour officials fear Truss is trying to drive a hard bargain with individual nations that depend on foreign income from sales of bananas, cocoa and flowers to the UK to make up for deals that largely favour foreign imports. With EU trade talks hanging in the balance and discussions with the US barely started, the trade department signed a deal with Japan last month that the shadow trade secretary, Emily Thornberry, warned massively favoured the world’s third-largest economy. Shadow trade minister Gareth Thomas said in a letter to Truss that he was concerned that the department’s attention had switched from talks with the East African Community (EAC) trade bloc to bilateral deals with individual countries. He said that the failure to sign deals with Kenya and Ghana had left them unable to plan for next year and, worse, the current proposals left them facing duties on exports to the UK. “The terms of the continuity agreements you have been proposing would lead to new barriers to trade between both...