Parliament has begun the ratification process of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) agreement, which will create an integrated market between 26 African countries. Parliament’s trade and industry committee was briefed on the agreement on Wednesday by Department of Trade and Industry chief director Wamkele Mene, who said ratification by SA would send a strong signal of its commitment to regional integration. SA is also engaged in negotiations on the Continental Africa Free Trade Area and the department’s director-general, Lionel October, told the committee that it was now ready to sign it. SA signed the TFTA agreement in July 2017. It will enter into force once it has been ratified by 14 member states. So far only Egypt, Uganda and Kenya have ratified it. The TFTA will include members of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African States (Comesa) and the East African Community. These countries have a combined gross domestic product of $1.2-trillion and a combined population of about 626-million people. Some TFTA countries, such as Rwanda, Ethiopa and Tanzania, are among the fastest-growing economies on the continent. SA’s trade with TFTA countries represents about 16% of its total trade with the world. In 2017 SA’s total trade with TFTA countries amounted to $27.6bn. "SA will build on its current share of the African market and have access to a larger, more integrated and growing regional market. This has the potential to stimulate industrial development, investment and job creation," Mene said. He...

ADDIS ABABA, June 11 (Xinhua) -- East African countries, under the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), on Monday disclosed their interest in penetrating Southeast Asia's meat and live animals market via Hong Kong. IGAD member countries, which usually export live animals and meat to Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, said Hong Kong's meat and live animals market could help to mitigate some of the challenges faced while exporting to MENA region, IGAD said in a statement. According to IGAD, despite the close proximity and East Africa's rich animal resources, the region was only able to meet 50 percent and 10 percent of the annual demand of the Middle East and North African markets respectively. Noting the seasonal nature of MENA's meat and live animal market, which reaches its high peak during religious seasons when millions of live animals exported especially to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for festivity slaughter, IGAD stressed "the need to mitigate the seasonal demand and promote continuous exports." "It was necessary to explore new markets in Southeast Asia while at the same time expanding the existing market in MENA," the statement read. The East African bloc IGAD, which recently sent its trade mission to Hong Kong to explore opportunities of entering the market for meat, also hailed the possibilities to penetrate the region's meat market via Hong Kong. "Hong Kong can serve as a gateway to different cities that have a combined population of 66 million people that can provide good market for imported...

Trade policy cooperation and coordination are more than ever of utmost importance to us. Increasing protectionist tendencies provide us with a clear incentive and opportunity to express our strong support for the multilateral trading system. Joint press release by Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo, World Bank Group Chief Executive Officer Kristalina Georgieva and AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina on the occasion of their meeting in Berlin on 11 June 2018. Our common approach of fostering international economic policy cooperation remains necessary to address global challenges, set new standards and improve the prospects for inclusive and sustainable growth. To this end, we remain committed to strengthening both institutional and informal links among national governments, international organizations and other stakeholders, including such fora as the G7 and G20. The global conjuncture remains favorable. World growth rose to 3.8% in 2017. The IMF projects a slight pick-up in global growth to 3.9% in 2018-19. Among advanced economies, expansionary fiscal policy is expected to drive the US economy above full employment, while excess capacity in Euro Area economies is projected to narrow with support from accommodative monetary policy. Among emerging and developing economies, prospects are for continued strong growth in emerging Asia and Europe but are more subdued elsewhere. Inflationary pressures remain contained, despite the increase in commodity prices. Financial conditions are generally supportive, but with some signs of differentiation across countries. The WTO anticipates merchandise trade volume growth...

NAIROBI, June 11 (Xinhua) -- East Africa Community (EAC) member states have agreed to complete cross-border frequency coordination by the end of 2018, an official said on Monday. Ally Simba, Executive Secretary of East African Communications Organization (EACO), told a media briefing in Nairobi that that people living at border areas in the region have for long experienced forced roaming as a result of cross-border mobile network interferences. Simba said that this has resulted in those residents paying high roaming charges to access mobile telecommunications services. Speaking during the 25th East African Communications Organization (EACO) meeting of assemblies, Simba said cross-border frequency coordination for mobile services has been done in 90 percent of the borders and the verification exercise by the regulators is ongoing. He noted that the aim of the coordination exercise is to reduce forced roaming so that users are able to connect to their home networks without interference from the neighboring country's networks. Simba added that cross-border frequency coordination for broadcasting services has also commenced and the work of implementing the cross-border framework for broadcasting should be complete by the end of the year. Peter Munya, Kenya's Cabinet Secretary in the EAC Ministry, said the EAC member states and private ICT firms in the region have in the past initiated projects that are not only fostering integration among people but have also lowered the cost of doing business in the region. Munya said among the most successful is the multi-country initiative that harmonized the regional mobile roaming...

Preferential Trade agreement, free trade areas, customs union, once well planned under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA pact), benefits outweigh protectionism by far. AFCFTA member countries will have few or no price controls in form of tariffs or quotas between each other. This agreement like many around the globe, allow member countries to focus on their competitive advantages and to produce the goods and services they are comparatively more efficient at making, thus increasing the efficiency and profitability of each country. Competitive advantage Competitive advantages are conditions that allow a company or country to produce a good or service of equal value at a lower price or in a more desirable fashion. Business players will need to vigorously monitor their position to compete.  A local company must look for conditions that allow production of goods and services that will generate more sales or superior margins compared to its market rivals. Competitive advantages are attributed to a variety of factors including cost structure, branding, and the quality of product offering, the distribution network, intellectual property and customer service. The two major competitive advantages are comparative advantages and differential advantages. Under comparative advantages, firms produce a good or service more efficiently than its competitors, which leads to greater profit margins, thus creates a comparative advantage. Therefore, the more sustainable the competitive advantage, the more difficult it is for competitors to neutralize the advantages. Remember rational consumers will chose the cheaper of any two perfect substitutes offered. Investors’ expectations More dynamic...

Kenya risks missing out on business opportunities in other East African Community (EAC) countries. EAC Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya cited police roadblocks on international highways, double taxation and inefficacy at the port of Mombasa as some of the challenges Kenya must address to maximize on trade opportunities. Munya said he has written to the national Government and asked that roadblocks that have been erected on international highways be removed to ease movement of transit goods. “These roadblocks are causing unnecessary delays of goods from Mombasa to neighbouring countries. I have raised the issue with relevant agency and I hope the barriers will be removed soon,” he said in Kitale. He also asked counties to stop imposing illegal taxes on transit goods. Source: Standard Digital

Taxation by county governments on transit goods is holding back plans to eliminate trade barriers between East Africa Africa Community countries, Cabinet minster Peter Munya said at the weekend. The Cabinet Secretary for East African and Northern Corridor Development said double taxation will stiffle the growth of the East African economic market. “I want to ask the county governments to stop double taxation on the trucks that are on transit, that is not in the constitution,” he said. Munya was speaking in Kitale during a sensitisation workshop for Members of County Assembly drawn from Trans Nzoia, West Pokot, Busia and Turkana whch are border counties on EAC trade rules. He urged counties to minimise roadblocks that hinder movement of goods from the port of Mombasa to other East African countries saying that summit decisions stipulates that unnecessary roadblocks should be avoided on international highways. “It is very clear that there should be no roadblocks on international highways that’s a decision by the summit that must be adhered to, this is causing a lot of delays,” he said. The minister said only gazetted roadblocks placed to enhance security should be in place. He said that as a result of the roadblocks which lead to time wastage, other countries with similar goods are edging out Kenya from its traditional regional markets an advantage that Kenya has been enjoying with the signing of the East African free trade. He said that faster movement of goods from the Mombasa port will enable Kenya to...

Border counties should establish formal trade relations with their neighbours, a Cabinet secretary has said. East Africa Community and Northern Corridor Development CS Peter Munya urged such counties to avoid imposing unnecessary taxes that could hinder cross-border trade. To promote such trade, Mr Munya (pictured) urged the leaders of the affected counties to embrace regular integration and exchange programmes. “In order to create more business opportunities for our people living near international borders, we need to build sustainable business ties with our neighbours. The counties should not put barriers that will hinder trade,” he said. Munya was speaking during a two-day workshop in Kitale over the weekend. The event was organised to educate county executives and MCAs from border counties on EAC regional integration. Participants were drawn from Turkana, West Pokot, Trans Nzoia, Busia and Bungoma counties. Munya said the Government was committed to opening up cross-border business opportunities for Kenyans. Source: Standard Digital

East African countries are struggling to comply with key macroeconomic targets on fiscal deficit, inflation, public debt and foreign exchange reserves ahead of the operationalisation of a single currency regime by 2024. The mixed performance of regional economies on these targets is likely to delay the delivery of the benefits of a monetary union to regional traders and citizens such as reduced costs of cross-border transactions. A study by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) conducted in October 2017 shows that while the partner states are on track to achieving the criteria on inflation, challenges remain in attaining the targets on fiscal deficit and adequate level of foreign exchange reserves. This, according to the study, is due to the countries' heavy spending on infrastructure projects and increased imports of capital goods. Countries are expected to attain headline inflation of a maximum eight per cent, a fiscal deficit (including grants) of not more than three per cent of GDP, a public debt-to-GDP ratio of 50 per cent and forex reserves of at least 4.5 months of import cover, to qualify to join the East African Monetary Union. Countries are also required to comply with the criteria for at least three years before the official launch of the single currency regime. This implies the countries have up to 2021 to comply with these conditions. However, efforts towards fulfilling these conditions have been lacklustre with signs that some countries could be forced to scale down on huge infrastructure projects to reduce...

44 African economies signed in March an ambitious treaty in order to form the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The goal is to eliminate tariffs on 90% of goods. The rationale behind more regional integration is to trade between equals and limit the share of vertical trade (exports of commodities and imports of capital). It should help ascend the value chain and increase the share of manufactured goods in African exports, since manufactured goods represent 43% of intra-African exports and less than 20% of African exports to other regions (75% is driven by commodities). The current predominance of commodity exports makes growth procyclical to commodity prices. Sizeable output volatility deters economic development. More trade openness should imply some economies of scale, through the relocation of production activities in regional hubs, although with some limitations explained by remaining capital controls. One may easily infer some welfare gains for the consumer. However, such economies of scale will also imply some losers. The recent period of low commodity prices was abruptly felt by countries with fixed exchange rates, as they lost competitiveness after other currencies depreciated (like the Nigerian Naira or the Ghanaian Cedi). In economies with low labor productivity, the likely impact of lower import tariffs is worrying trade unions. It explains why Nigeria and South Africa did not sign the free trade agreement yet, since these organizations are directly involved in political parties in these countries. A free trade area will increase intra-African exports We expect African exports to increase...