The U.K. government unveiled plans over the weekend to replicate current European Union-negotiated trade terms with the poorest 48 countries after it leaves the bloc, signaling the first major milestone for Secretary of State for International Development Priti Patel’s pledge to put post-Brexit trade at the center of her department’s new economic development strategy. The announcement commits to maintaining the current quota-free, duty-free trade access to the British market currently enjoyed by the poorest 48 countries through the EU. The government also announced it intends to maintain current trade advantages for other developing countries and, in some cases, to “explore options to expand relationships,” although specific terms can only be announced after bilateral negotiations. The news falls in line with the Department for International Development's new economic development strategy, released in January, as well as its cross-government strategy, which commits to spending 30 percent of U.K. aid through departments other than DfID by 2020. It will likely mean a greater emphasis on some of the work DfID is doing around trade facilitation and through the CDC, the U.K.’s development finance institution, a DfID official told Devex. Rachel Turner, director-general of economic development at DfID, said the primary objective behind the announcement is to provide continuity for current and potential investors in the region. She emphasized some of the new strategies DfID is considering to promote better access to global markets. About 20 billion pounds ($25 billion) worth of goods are exported to the U.K. from developing countries every year, according to government statistics. “We...

The United States has raised concerns that future trade and investment deals with East African countries based on a continent-wide free trade agreement may be unrealistic due to their diverse interests. According to Washington, the differences could lead to a lowest common denominator agreement and consensus on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) would be difficult. Last year, the EAC told the US that, in order to increase trade and investment between the two parties, the general outlook of post-Agoa should take on a development dimension based on trade facilitation and investment promotion as well as address supply constraints and improve the business environment in the region. “Future agreements with the US, post-Agoa, should be discussed at the continental level in line with the African Regional Integration Agenda,” said Beyond African Growth and Opportunity Act, a report of the meeting of the Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment held on June 2 in Arusha. “Special and differential treatment should be factored into any trade and investment agreement post Agoa, as well as development support, in order to enhance EAC capacity to trade with the US. Therefore, there may be a need to qualify reciprocity that would take into account the asymmetrical nature of the economies involved.” According to the EAC, although policy reforms can have a positive impact on the private sector and influence the global competitiveness of the region’s firms, future trade relations should not be made conditional on these reforms. Such agreements should focus on trade...

Agriculture will now be placed as number one engine of economic growth in the East African Community (EAC) integration process. This follows last week's signing of the EAC Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Compact. "The Compact is designed to facilitate coordination of regional and cross cutting programmes that complement agricultural programmes and projects at national and regional levels," said the EAC deputy secretary general (Productive and Social Sectors) Christophe Bazivamo. He said after the signing ceremony at the EAC headquarters that the process of developing the EAC-CAADP Compact has been lengthy, inclusive and consultative and that the partner states should embrace it. The programme details regional development priorities and defines actions, commitments and partnerships required to achieve agricultural transformation in line with the CAADP goals and targets. Uganda's Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Mr Ssempijja Bamulangaki, reaffirmed the EAC Partner States' commitment to transforming agriculture for inclusive economic growth in the region. "Over the years, efforts have been put in different sectors of integration such as infrastructure. It is now time that we assert ourselves, move with greater speed and ensure we take agriculture to the lead," the minister said. CAADP's overall goal is to use agriculture to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty in Africa. Through the CAADP agenda, African governments have agreed to increase public investment in agriculture to ten per cent of national budgets per year and to raise and maintain agricultural productivity and annual growth by at least six per cent. With the vision...

Dodoma. Two days after the US Trade Representative announced that Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda risk losing access to the American market through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) following plans by the East African member states to ban imports of second-hand clothes and shoes, a former Cabinet minister has asked the government to take the issue seriously. The US Trade Representative announced on Tuesday the initiation of an out-of-cycle review of the eligibility of Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda to receive benefits under the act after concerns that the planned ban will impose significant economic hardship on the US used clothing industry. The launch of the review is in response to a petition filed by the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (Smart), which asserts that a March 2016 decision by the East African Community, which includes Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, to phase in a ban on imports of used clothing and footwear is imposing significant economic hardship on the US used clothing industry. Having read the article in The Citizen on Thursday, Dr Diodorus Kamala (CCM - Nkenge), said the government needs to take the issue seriously and come up with necessary plan of action. “There is a story in The Citizen today which shows how serious this issue might be. The government needs to come up with relevant measures to protect the economy from the negative outcomes of what might be reached under Agoa,” he told the House yesterday during a debate on the 2017 Finance Bill. Dr...

Experts attending the second high-level East African Manufacturing Business Summit and Exhibition (EAMBS) held in Rwanda’s capital city Kigali said Wednesday that innovation is key for the East Africa manufacturing sector to compete globally. “We have to understand that our industries are operating in a global context, in an open globalized market place, and that is not going to change. We have to be innovative and work on our efficiencies. We should be able to produce high quality products that are competitive at international markets,” said Ali Mafuruki, board chair of Trade Mark East Africa. He added that regional economies should strategically position themselves in the global business environment through producing locally made products that are price competitive. Rwanda hosts the forum from May 23 to 25, 2017 dubbed “harnessing the Manufacturing Potential for Sustainable Economic Growth”. The three-day meeting includes an exhibition where investors, enterprises, researchers and academia will collectively showcase new products and services as well as exhibit the latest advances in manufacturing technology and innovation, particularly those with relevance to Small Medium Enterprises. Lilian Awinja, executive director of East African Business Council (EABC), called for innovative strategies that will raise competitiveness levels and expand the region’s manufacturing and export base. “Innovations are now shaping the business environment. We need to add value to products produced in EAC. Our regional industries can now begin to raise manufacturing output and increase its share of global trade and production,” she added. Mukhisa Kituyi, secretary-general of United Nations Conference on Trade...

Arusha — The East African Community (EAC) says it will go ahead with its annual secretary-general's forum in Bujumbura, Burundi, which will kick off tomorrow despite a boycott by a regional umbrella body of civil society organisations. Officials of the secretariat said yesterday that preparations for the two-day event were progressing well and were not bothered by threats from the East African Civil Society Organisations Forum (EACSOF). "We are not bothered at all. Officials of the organisation or their partners can attend the meeting or not. It is up to those invited to turn up or not," one of them told The Citizen on the condition of anonymity. EACSOF, an umbrella body of civil society organisations with an observer status to the EAC, said last week that its members would boycott this year's forum in Burundi for security concerns. In a letter sent to the EAC secretary-general Liberat Mfumukeko said they would keep away from the Bujumbura event to protest against alleged human rights abuses against members of CSOs in Burundi, some of who had been forced into exile. EACSOF president Marie Ingabire added that it was also concerned by the security situation in Burundi, where more than 400 people were killed during the 2015/16 political chaos. However, EAC officials insisted that the meeting would be attended by members of non-governmental organisations, professional bodies, universities, representatives from partner states, EAC organs and institutions. One official cautioned that EAC would not like to be drawn into frosty relations between Burundi and...

Kenya no longer faces possible loss of Agoa trade benefits, US officials announced on Tuesday. However, three other East African Community member states -- Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda -- must undergo an assessment of their Agoa eligibility status, Washington's top trade agency affirmed. The assessment could result in their ejection from the preferential trade programme. A review of Kenya's inclusion in the African Growth and Opportunity Act "is not warranted at this time," the Office of the US Trade Representative said in a notice published in a federal government gazette. It cited "recent actions Kenya has taken, including reversing tariff increases, effective July 1, 2017, and committing not to ban imports of used clothing through policy measures that are more trade-restrictive than necessary to protect human health." The US trade office added that it "will continue to monitor Kenya's actions to ensure that Kenya follows through on its commitments." The US decision to spare Kenya from a process that would have jeopardised the country's 66,000 Agoa-related jobs "is, no doubt, a victory for Kenya's trade diplomacy," said Abdirizak Musa, an official in Nairobi's embassy in Washington. Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda still risk loss of their Agoa benefits due to their ongoing commitment to a March 2016 EAC decision to phase in a ban on imports of used clothing and footwear from the US. The EAC countries, including Kenya, were named in a petition filed three months ago by a US-based recycled textiles association alleging that the joint move to bar...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Trade Representative said on Tuesday it was reviewing trade benefits to Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) after a complaint by U.S. interests about an East African ban on imports of used clothing. USTR said the "out-of-cycle" review was in response to a petition filed by the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART), which complained that the ban "imposed significant hardship" on the U.S. used-clothing industry and violated AGOA rules. "Through the out-of-cycle review, USTR and trade-related agencies will assess the allegations contained within the SMART petition and review whether Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda are adhering to AGOA's eligibility requirements," USTR said in a statement. The move follows a decision by the six-nation East African Community - Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and South Sudan - to fully ban imported second-hand clothes and shoes by 2019, arguing it would help member countries boost domestic clothes manufacturing. The USTR did not elaborate on why the three countries were singled out for review. The AGOA trade program provides eligible sub-Saharan countries duty-free access to the United States on condition they meet certain statutory eligibility requirements, including eliminating barriers to U.S. trade and investment, among others. U.S. AGOA imports from Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda totaled $43 million in 2016, up from $33 million in 2015, according to the USTR. U.S. exports to Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda were $281 million in 2016, up from $257 million the year before, it said. Source:...

The African continent was the second fastest growing economy in the world behind South Asia in 2016. According to results shared at the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group’s Annual Meetings in 2017, East Africa in particular deserves the lion’s share of the credit for the continent’s performance. East Africa was the best sub-regional performer, with growth rising by 5.3% in real terms last year, followed by North Africa at 3.3%, Southern Africa at 1.1%, Central Africa at 0.8%, and West Africa at 0.4%. The AfDB presentation stated that three of the top five fastest growing countries on the continent were from East Africa as well. They were Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Djibouti and their economic output rose by 8%, 7.2%, and 6.3% respectively. Rounding off the top five was Cote d’Ivoire (8.4%) and Senegal (6.7%). The East African Community The East African Community (EAC) is a group of six nations – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. It provides a common market for the member countries to share goods and resources. The East African Legislative Assembly recently passed a $110.1 million budget for fiscal year 2017-18. This was an 8% rise from the previous year ending in June. The region has been trying to push the implementation of the EAC Common Market Protocol with a special focus on free movement of labor across member nations. If successful, the EAC will set an example for the rest of Africa and help nations with less resources to get the support they need locally...

The passion with which our president supports the integration of Africa and East Africa is amazing. Africa is so balkanized with miniscule individual country markets that can never create a strong foundation for sustainable economic growth. In the face of world powers, these balkanized statehoods are vulnerable to international conspiracy of the global big brothers. Africa is at the mercy of the unknown when one looks at our future survival. Our only hope would be in integration (not the late Muammar Gaddafi style where he wanted Africa to become one political entity irrespective of our diversity) but step by step as Museveni has proposed. Museveni says that the foundation for African single state should be built on strong regional political/economic blocks like the East African Community, Ecowas, Sadc and Comesa. I am told that by 1967, the East African Community was the global best practice model of economic integration. The European Union, the best economic/political block of our times, was no match to the formidable East African Community of the late 60s. All of us know what happened when Idi Amin came on the political stage. He squabbled with Tanzania and Kenya and the integration model was disrupted. By mid 1970s, the community had collapsed. With the strong leadership of Yoweri Museveni, Hassan Mwinyi and Mzee Daniel Arap Moi, the community was re-established step by step. We now see a community that has a reasonably working customs union, legislative assembly and East African Court of Justice. A semblance of free...