The 10th EAC-COMESA-SADC Tripartite Committee of Senior Officials for Trade, Customs, Finance, Economic matters and Internal Affairs meeting opened in Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday to resolve issues that remain outstanding before the implementation of the Tripartite Free Trade Area. Delegates from 26 member countries of the three African regional economic communities (RECs) including East African Community (EAC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) aim to resolve the issues that remain outstanding after the launch of the Tripartite Free Trade Area during a summit in Sham el Sheikh in Egypt June, 2015. Permanent Secretary Ministry of Trade Ambassador Julius Onen is leading the EAC Delegation. Onen noted that as a region, partner states have made progress on most of the outstanding issues and are ready to move forward with the finalization of the negotiations with other regional blocs. He informed the meeting that EAC had finalized all the tariff offers, however, some countries had not yet responded to the offers. It is now over a year since the Tripartite FTA was launched in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, however, member states have failed to agree on some issues including tariff offers, rules of origin, trade remedies and the ratification of the Agreement. Onen noted that Uganda is ready to ratify the TFTA Agreement as soon as all the outstanding issues are finalized so as to pave way for actual implementation, as the country stands to benefit a lot in terms of market access once implementation of...

By Alawi Masare Dar es Salaam — Tanzania has climbed up ease of doing business rankings, but the country is still lagging behind regional peers because of a complicated tax payment system, a new report shows. According to the Doing Business 2017 Report released yesterday, East Africa's second biggest economy adopted just one reform to improve aimed at improving the business environment. Tanzania is ranked 132nd, seven places up from its 139th position in last year's report. While the country has been credited for extending coverage of the credit reference bureau, the report notes that the government undermined this positive attribute by complicating the tax payment system. Tanzania is also performing poorly in trading across borders, protecting minority investors, resolving insolvency and registering property. Kenya and Rwanda undertook five and four reforms, respectively, to continue cementing their positions as East Africa's most reformed economies during the period under review. Uganda adopted three reforms, while Burundi made one improvement. No reform was reported in South Sudan, the newest member of the East African Community. Regionally, Tanzania is ahead of Burundi and South Sudan, according to the latest rankings. Doing business rankings are based on the average of how close each economy is to global best practices in business regulation. A high score indicates a more efficient business environment and stronger legal institutions. The report says that sub-Saharan Africa economies stepped up the pace of reform activity, with 37 economies undertaking a total of 80 business reforms in the past year, an...

By Zephania Ubwani Arusha — The East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) will open Chapter offices in the partner states for better coordination and efficiency. The offices at the capital cities of the East African Community (EAC) member countries will also ensure increased access by EAC nationals to functions of the Eala. The decision follows the adoption of a resolution moved by an Eala member from Kenya, Mr Abubakar Zein, during a recent session of the regional Parliament in Zanzibar. The resolution also avers commitment to enhancing interactions between the Eala and relevant institutions in the EAC partner states, particularly Parliaments. "The Eala needs to be pro-active and as it experiences challenges, it needs to come up with workable proposals to enable it to scale its services," said a lawmaker from Uganda, Ms Nusura Tiperu. However, an Eala member from Tanzania, Mr Abdullah Mwinyi, said there was a need to look for funds to establish the proposed Chapter offices in the EAC capital cities. He said due to the structure of the Parliament of Tanzania, there were no offices set aside in Dodoma or Dar es Salaam for Eala. Ms Dorah Byamukama from Uganda supported the move, suggesting that Eala members should utilise offices within the precincts of Parliaments of their respective countries. (TM) Source: All Africa

International Development Secretary Priti Patel pledges more help to create jobs, build livelihoods and support the poorest people in Africa to work their way out of poverty, during visit to Kenya. As the first Cabinet Minister to visit Africa since the UK voted to leave the European Union, the International Development Secretary set out her vision for UK aid in the continent and announced new support to boost economic development. With Africa now home to the world’s fastest growing population, Ms Patel set out the importance of generating productive jobs and sustainable livelihoods, opening up markets, stimulating economic growth and increasing business opportunities to make the most of a young, vibrant working population. This provides a better alternative to risking the dangerous journey to Europe or turning to extremism, therefore tackling migration and instability, which is firmly in the UK’s interests. New support includes: Launching a new Invest Africa programme to encourage at least £400 million of foreign direct investment into the most productive sectors – such as manufacturing – to create 90,000 direct and indirect jobs in Kenya and other African countries over the next decade. This builds on the UK’s role as the largest European investor into Africa. Providing £95 million over the next four years to increase Kenya’s trade by £1.3bn, building on the success of TradeMark Africa – founded by UK aid – in breaking down the barriers to trade. This will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, stimulate further growth and generate additional revenue...

Priti Patel is standing in the control tower of Mombasa port on the east coast of Kenya. Outside the windows she has a bird's eye view of the sprawling seaway, gateway for much of east Africa's trade. And the international development secretary is doing something that belies her reputation: she is nodding approvingly as she hears how British taxpayers' money is being spent helping a foreign country boost its economy. For this is the kind of aid that Ms Patel likes: bilateral, targeted and above all, easily measurable. You can count the freshly tarmaced roads, the newly built quays, the brand new scanners that her department are paying for to make it easier for goods to flow in and out of this port. And the aim is clear: to help support Kenya's economic development so that one day it can alleviate its own poverty without outside help. Yet there is another agenda here too. And it is very explicit. Ms Patel wants to use Britain's development muscle more explicitly in the UK's national interest. So she wants to use aid to try to slow the flow of African migrants to Europe. She wants to use aid to leverage post-Brexit trade deals and butter up potential allies in the World Trade Organization. And she wants British aid to be used specifically to foster stability and security where it can to stop bad people ending up on Britain's streets. Longstanding critic On one level this is a continuation of David Cameron's aid...

Priti Patel wants more "openness and accountability" with international aid Major multinational aid funding may be cut unless it provides better value for money, International Development Secretary Priti Patel has said. More than £4bn of UK aid goes to global organisations such as the World Bank. In an interview in Kenya with BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale, Ms Patel also said that she wanted to use the aid budget to help pave the way for trade deals. She was speaking on her first visit to Africa since she was appointed. Ms Patel witnessed what some of her department's £12bn budget is supporting on the ground. She saw humanitarian aid being delivered, via a payment card that gives Kenyan women £20 a month from the British taxpayer to buy the food they need to survive. Spending better and wasting less She said: "We have to make sure that our aid works in our national interest and also that it works for our taxpayers. Much more openness, much more transparency and much more accountability." She is about to publish a review of the work of big multinational aid organisations that spend money on behalf of the UK, and said she would cut off funding if they did not meet new performance targets by spending better and wasting less. Ms Patel was on her first visit to Africa as international development secretary"The government's approach is focused on ensuring that we drive taxpayer value - so when it comes to multilateral organisations, focus on...

Africa needs trade not aid. This has been the reverberating message from many African leaders, economists and business pioneers of late. At this September’s UN General Assembly, Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama and Senegalese President Macky Sall addressed world leaders with this very sentiment. The emphasis on trade over aid is in part a backlash against the modest results of development aid. Africa has received over $1 trillion ininternational aid over the past 50 years, but this has been ineffective in combating poverty and spurring economic growth in a sustainable way. Moreover, aid inefficiencies are acutely heightened where there is a lack of strong political institutions, a common difficulty across the continent. In contrast, there is a proven link between openness to trade and economic performance, an approach that has taken centre stage in the trade policies of the EU, Africa’s second largest trading partner after China. Towards a reciprocal relationship The embodiment of the shift towards trade can be seen within the context of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between a number of African groupings (Central Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, East African Community, Southern African Development Community and West Africa) and the EU. Essentially, the EU wants to move towards a reciprocal trading relationship with the continent, in which African regional groups gain duty- and quota-free access to the EU market. In return, over time, participating African countries will have to liberalise just 83% of their markets, as sensitive products will be protected. For example, the Economic Community...

WASHINGTON: The collapse of free trade talks between Canada and the European Union is yet another sign of increasingly stiff resistance to economic globalization. Despite seven years of talks between Ottawa and Brussels, the CETA Treaty crashed into a wall Friday (Oct 21) after being rejected by the Belgian region of Wallonia, making it impossible for the European Union to approve the deal. That was an ominous sign for another ambitious treaty, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the United States and the EU, which also faces strident opposition on both sides of the Atlantic. And one huge deal already struck, the Trans Pacific Partnership between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries, is foundering because of the refusal so far of the US Congress to ratify it. And now, both candidates for the White House, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, say they do not support the treaty. It is a sharp reversal of a quarter-century since the fall of the Berlin Wall of support in the world's leading economies for freer trade and globalization. Now, the enthusiasm for breaking down borders appears to be fizzling out. "We are seeing the results of several decades of failures by political leaders to take the concerns over trade seriously," said Edward Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. For many years accusations have mounted that the progressive breaking down of trade barriers and removal of import duties in advanced economies has caused deindustrialization and huge...

Lower commodities prices have had some far-reaching effects on African economies. For exporters, weaker revenue has damped growth. Consider Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and biggest oil producer. The country’s gross domestic product contracted 2.1 percent in the second quarter, following a 0.4 percent slump in the first. Adjusting to this new reality will take time for energy exporters. Most African economies, though, aren’t in the oil business. For them, lower fuel costs support growth and living standards. So fortunes are set to diverge across the continent. In fact, the narrative could change from “Africa Rising” to “Africa Tilting” as commodity exporters in West, Central, and Southern Africa struggle to find new sources of growth, while East African economies develop and integrate into a more robust—and potentially huge—regional market. From 2010 to 2014, economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa averaged 5.2 percent. After oil prices plunged in 2014, growth slowed to 3.4 percent in 2015. It’s likely to be weaker still in 2016, but the decline in aggregate terms largely reflects slowdowns in Nigeria, fellow oil exporter Angola, and South Africa. The three countries accounted for about 60 percent of sub-Saharan GDP in 2015 but less than 30 percent of its population. For Bloomberg Intelligence analysis and data on Africa. Deeper integration, better-functioning markets, and improved infrastructure could all bear fruit as the continent pursues other sources of growth. East Africa is leading the way. The African Development Bank, in its inaugural Africa Regional Integration Index Report, rated the East African Community—Burundi,...

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) is considering admitting Somalia and Tunisia into the bloc. “[The Summit] mandated the Bureau of Council to enter into negotiations with Tunisia and Somalia on terms and conditions of accession to the Comesa Treaty,” reads part of the communique after the bloc’s Summit held in the Antananarivo, Madagascar, on October 18-19. Comesa spokesman Mwangi Gakunga could not say how long these negotiations will take before a decision on the two countries’ application is reached, as this is determined by the bloc’s highest decision making body — the Heads of State Summit or Comesa Authority. “Upon receipt of the application for membership, the Authority may prescribe the conditions and such other conditions for admission which shall be communicated to the applying state. Article 3(3) of the Regulations provides that admission of membership shall be decided by the Authority,” the regulations state. In 2005, Tunisia applied for observer status to Comesa, but its application was neither discussed nor endorsed by the member states. In February, it renewed its push to formally join the bloc when it wrote to Comesa Secretary-General Sindiso Ngwenya. Mr Ngwenya said that under Article 1(4) of the Comesa Treaty, Tunisia was eligible for admission as it is “an immediate neighbour of a member state of Comesa…upon fulfilling conditions that may be determined by the Comesa Authority.” Source: The East African