The Tanzania Ports Authority now says it has marshalled half a Billion dollars to complete its expansion drive that will see the facility double capacity to 28 Million tones annually. This is part of the continued impetus as Tanzania tries to emerge out of the shadow of Mombasa and the Northern Corridor. Source: Watsup Africa

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...

Tanzania has signed a $154 million port expansion contract with a Chinese firm as part of plans to transform it into the region’s transport and trade hub. State-run China Harbour Engineering Company will expand the main port in Dar es Salaam, repositioning it as a serious competitor to Kenya’s Mombasa port. The latter has also undergone a major upgrade in the past three years to improve efficiency and give it a competitive edge. In his 2017/18 budget proposal read last week, Tanzania Finance Minister Philip Mpango scrapped value added tax on transit goods from its main ports. The move is intended to win back importers from landlocked countries who saw this as an additional cost to their business. Under the port upgrade contract, which is funded by a World Bank loan, Tanzania is planning to build a roll on/roll off (ro-ro) terminal and to deepen seven existing berths in order to accommodate larger container ships. The project will be divided into two phases. Phase one will involve the construction of a new pier to offload ro-ro vessels and the consolidation and upgrading of berths one to seven. Phase two will involve deepening the berths from the current eight metres to 15 metres. The ro-ro terminal will allow the docking of large tonnage ships carrying vehicles, which can be driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using a platform vehicle. Minister of Works, Transport and Communication Makame Mbarawa said that the deepening and strengthening of the berths...

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...

African ministers and business people joined their American counterparts in Washington, D.C., last week at the U.S.-Africa Business Summit, to discuss greater economic engagement, despite lingering uncertainty over the United States’ position toward global trade. Conversations at the Corporate Council for Africa-hosted event ranged from broad strategy to country-specific investments, with plenty of time for meetings and deal-making. Throughout those talks, a few key issues emerged. First on many attendees’ minds was what the U.S.-Africa relationship will look like under President Donald Trump’s leadership. But robust discussions also emerged around the role of business in pandemic response, how to target and achieve social impact and the need for regional integration and infrastructure improvements. Here’s a look inside several of those conversations, and where they may be headed. The U.S.-Africa relationship U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross addressed the summit, offering reassurances and some specifics about the administration’s view toward existing and future trade pacts with the continent. “We cannot ignore such a large, dynamic and vital part of the world,” he told attendees of the administration’s interest in Africa. The administration would like to see Africa continue to grow and become more self-reliant, he said. “Our trade relationship is vital to the security and stability of both the U.S. and Africa. But our relationship with Africa has to continue its transition from being ‘aid-based’ to ‘trade-based,’” Ross said. The U.S. will honor the African Growth and Opportunity Act, he said, adding that it will hold countries to account for the compliance restrictions....

Tanzania's government signed a contract with the state-run China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) to expand the main port in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, in a deal worth $154 million. The funds have been raised from a loan from the World Bank, and will be used as part of the country’s ambition to become a regional transport and trade hub. CHEC will build a roll-on, roll-off terminal and deepen and strengthen seven berths at Dar es Salaam port. If the project is successful, container throughput capacity will increase from 20 million tonnes to 28 million tonnes. The project is scheduled to complete in 2020. “Deepening and strengthening of the berths will allow big container ships to dock in Dar es Salaam,” said Makame Mbarawa, Transport and Communications Minister. “All these efforts are being done in order to increase competitiveness of the port.” Tanzania said in January it was to receive a $305 million loan from the World Bank to expand its main port, where congestion and inefficiencies are hampering service delivery. Source: Supply Chain Digital