INTERNATIONAL

Trade acrimony could revive 'stalled' farm policy reform – OECD - International tensions over trade could have a positive outcome for agriculture by reviving efforts to reform the most ineffective of policies that distribute hundreds of billions of dollars to farmers each year, the OECD said. Nearly 70% of subsidies, taxes and other financial transfers involving farmers come from policies that heavily distort markets, notably by creating an artificial gap between domestic and world prices, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in an annual survey of agriculture policy. (Reuters)

Key Words: Trade, OECD, Agriculture

Vietnam signs free trade deal with EU - Vietnam and the European Union signed a free trade deal reducing tariffs on goods of 99 percent traded between the southeastern state and the Union. The deal will boost Vietnams economy by around 5 percent until 2024-2028. (TRT World)

Key Words: Free Trade, Vietnam, EU

Five Facts on Fintech - Fact No 3 – Sub-Saharan Africa is a global leader in mobile money innovation, adoption, and usage - The region leads the world in mobile money accounts per capita (both registered and active accounts), mobile money outlets, and volume of mobile money transactions. (IMF)

Key Words: IMF, Africa, Fintech

Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Day calls for investing in strengthening investment facilitators – International Trade Centre (ITC) marked the third International MSME day on June 27, 2019. The theme this year ‘Big money for Small Business` served as a reminder of the importance of financing small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging economies for achieving sustainable development.
The highlight of the day was the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Competitiveness Outlook (SME Outlook) 2019 report launch at the World Trade Organization (WTO) premises. (ITC)

Key Words: MSMEs, ITC, Investment

Azevêdo welcomes G20 leaders’ reaffirmation of commitment to WTO reform – Director-General Roberto Azevêdo strongly welcomed the communiqué agreed by G20 leaders at the summit in Osaka, Japan on 29 June recommitting the G20 to the need for WTO reform. The Director-General participated in the summit, where he also underlined the urgency of addressing the blockage in the WTO dispute settlement system. (WTO)

Key Words: G-20, WTO, Reform

Investors see trade truce giving risk assets short reprieve - Strategists and investors from Toronto to Singapore agree the outcome of a high-stakes meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, alleviates the immediate risk of more tariffs in a dispute that has gripped investors for more than a year. They also worry that core issues of the trade war haven’t been resolved. (Daily Maverick)

Key Words: Investors, Trade, U.S, China

How Europe hopes to keep trade flowing with Iran - European countries want to convince Iran to stick to its nuclear deal with world powers and have created a payment system that would facilitate some forms of trade with Iran in the face of financial sanctions and pressure from the U.S. European countries have dubbed their trade mechanism INSTEX, for Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges. (APN News)

Key Words: Europe, Iran, Trade Relation

What to expect from the World Economic Forum’s China meeting - Unprecedented technological change, global warming, geopolitical uncertainties, rising inequality: major challenges facing the world, and some of the big themes that will be addressed at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions. More than 1,800 leaders from government, business, civil society, academia and the arts will converge in the Chinese coastal city of Dalian from 1-3 July to discuss "Leadership 4.0: Succeeding in a New Era of Globalization". (World Economic Forum)

Key Words: China, Economy, Forum

PAN AFRICAN

Can Trump’s Prosper Africa make America greater than China and other partners in Africa? - Prosper Africa represents a step forward in U.S.-Africa trade and investment relations along two main lines. First, Prosper Africa signifies a unique attempt to effectively and permanently formalize the coordination of all relevant executive agencies to accelerate trade and investment with Africa. It is also an acknowledgement of African countries’ tremendous business potential. (Brookings)

Key Words: Trump, Africa, Trade relations

Joint statement of the Coordinators’ meeting on the implementation of the follow-up actions of the FOCAC Beijing Summit - To jointly advance the implementation of the follow-up actions of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit, Coordinators from the People’s Republic of China, 53 African countries and the African Union Commission (AUC) held a meeting of Coordinators in Beijing on 25 June 2019. (Tralac)

Key Words: China, Africa, Cooperation

African gov’ts urged to move with speed to address over-dependence on imported medicines - The two-day Horn of Africa trade forum ended Friday in Addis Ababa with participants agreeing that with the African Continental Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) now in force, it was time for the continent to increase domestic production of pharmaceutical products and end over dependence on imported medicines. (ECA)

Key Words: Africa, AfCFTA, Import

The digital disconnect of informal businesses -  Informal firms hardly use basic technologies such as computers or even the internet for their business activities. Results from recently completed World Bank Surveys of informal businesses show that only about 1% of informal businesses in Lao PDR and Mozambique use computers for their operations. The figures for internet use are not that different with only 1 in 200 businesses in Mozambique using internet, and slightly higher in Zimbabwe with only 2% of businesses using internet. (World Bank)

Key Words: Business, Africa, Technology

E-commerce signals new future for ties between China, Africa – African companies are exploring new trade models with China based on e-commerce at the first China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (CAETE), which opened on Thursday in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province. Trade between China and African countries has been rising since 2008, and by 2018, China had been the biggest trading partner of the continent for a decade. As bilateral trade grows, e-commerce is emerging as a new way to bring about a more sustainable growth mode.(Global Times)

Key Words: Africa, China, Trade

Leaders attend US-Africa Business Summit - Several SADC leaders this week attended the US-Africa Business Summit hosted by Mozambique in Maputo for the first time. The summit brought together at least 10 African presidents and representatives of the United States government and entrepreneurs, the organisers said. The summit took place under the theme “Promoting a resilient and sustainable partnership between the US and Africa” and brought together at least 1,000 senior executives from Africa and U.S. companies. (Southern Times)

Key Words: US, Africa, Business

Gridworks invests in pan-African solar company - CDC-backed Gridworks has committed $7.5 million (ZAR106.7 million) to Mettle Solar Investments, a pan-African commercial and industrial solar company. In a media statement, Gridworks, the new company launched in June by CDC Group to invest in electricity networks across Africa, announced its first investment. (ESI Africa)

Key Words: Africa, Solar Company, Investment

Russia to fight ‘American Protectionism’ from Africa – Russia is jostling the United States and China for a piece of Africa and political influence in the resource-rich continent. To make the most out of these relationships, Africa and Russia must harness their immense resources to foster a greater economic future for their people. (The Exchange)

Key Words: Russia, Africa, Economy

Solar’s big promise for lighting Africa is tied to the continent’s mobile money advantage - The number of people in Africa without access to electricity remain staggering and unchanging with every report—around 640 million people don’t have access to a grid. And even when some of people do have access the electricity supply is unreliable and unstable. The most consistent and promising approach to tackling this huge obstacle to development has come with the off-grid pay-as-you-go solar power model, now called PayGo. (Quartz Africa)

Key Words: PayGo, Africa, Electricity

NORTH AFRICA

Tunisia and Ghana lead Africa’s Telecom Growth - Tunisia has maintained a competitive position in telecoms growth in Africa. Tunisia represents the face of telecom’s growth by dominating in the North Africa region. It occupies a comfortable third position in the whole of the African region. A plan has been rolled out to move Tunisia’s telecoms forward towards achieving the laid out target for the sector. (Tunisia Live)

Key Words: Tunisia, Telecom, Ghana

Flynas, EgyptAir sign interline agreement - Saudi low-cost carrier Flynas has signed a multilateral interline traffic agreement with Egypt’s national carrier, EgyptAir.
 The agreement aims to offer passengers of both airlines a wider range of air travel options, where Flynas’ passengers will be able to visit several new destinations across Europe and Africa through EgyptAir-operated flights via Cairo International Airport. (Trade Arabia)

Key Words: EgyptAir, Flynas, Business

Moroccan port becomes largest in Mediterranean with Tanger Med II extension -  Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan inaugurated on Friday, June 28,  the Tanger Med 2, an extension project that will allow Morocco’s Tangier port to surpass some of the key international ports in terms of container capacity in the Mediterranean. The port will be operational following nine years of construction work, which started in May 2010. (Morocco World News)

Key Words: Port, Morocco, Economy

How industrialization took its toll on Egyptian women - Shifting from an agrarian society to an industrialized one eliminates certain professions or at least notably reduces the demand on them, while creating others. Such shift has caused women to lose their economic role in some countries to men as business owners would favor employing males rather than females for different reasons. (Egypt Today)

Key Words: Egypt, Women, Industrialization

Libyan women beat odds to do business – When inflation began eating into her state-paid salary, Libyan architect and assistant professor Seham Saleh joined a growing number of Libyan women launching start-ups in the conservative Arab country, where many still think a woman’s place is in the home.(africanews.com)

Key Words: Libya, Business, Women

EAST AFRICA

Welfare Impact of Value-Added Tax Reform: The Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo - The adoption of the value-added tax the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012 led to price increases that are thought to adversely affect the welfare of most Congolese households. To date, research has not yet examined the poverty and distributional impacts of this tax reform. (World Bank)

Key Words: DRC, Tax, World Bank

Bid to boost trade between Ethiopia, Kenya faces hurdles - Kenya and Ethiopia are still struggling to conduct robust trade between them despite penning a number of bilateral agreements and instituting several trade-friendly measures. This is according to Foreign Affairs Chief Administrative Secretary Ababu Namwamba, who singled out non-tariff barriers for the current subdued bilateral trade. The barriers include long bureaucratic procedures, bans and sanctions. (Daily Nation)

Key Words: Bilateral Trade, Kenya, Ethiopia

WEST AFRICA

President Buhari accepts Report of the Committee to assess Impact and Readiness for the AfCFTA - Address by HE. Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, at the Formal Acceptance of the Report of the Committee to assess Impact and Readiness for the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) on Thursday, 27th June 2019. (Tralac)

Key Words: AfCFTA, Nigeria, Report

ECOWAS adopts name of single currency - The Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government on Saturday adopted ECO as the name of the single currency to be issued in January 2020. The leaders at their 55th Ordinary Session in Abuja endorsed the name while congratulating the Ministerial Committee on the Single Currency for the considerable progress recorded in the implementation of the revised roadmap. (The Eagle)

Key Words: ECOWAS, Currency, ECO

Nigeria’s non-oil export to UAE hits $608m - The total value of Nigeria’s non-oil export to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) stood at $608 million in 2017, statistics from the Economic Research Department of Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) has indicated. The data, which was made available to The Nation yesterday, showed that while UAE’s non-oil export to Nigeria stood at $612 million in 2017, rising from $605 million in 2016, the value of her non-oil imports from Nigeria was $608 million, down from $730 million in 2016. (The Nation)

Key Words: Nigeria, Export, UAE

West African states adopt flexible FX regime for regional trade - West African nations have adopted a flexible currency regime after making considerable progress on plans for a single currency but the bloc would first need to set up a monetary union as it strives for regional integration. Heads of State of the 15-member West African Community of African States (ECOWAS) met on Saturday in the Nigerian capital Abuja to review progress on integration, the body said. (Reuters)

Key Words: ECOWAS, Trade, Currency

West African nations adopt ECO as 'single currency' - Leaders of the member states of the Economic Community of West African States, known as ECOWAS, formally agreed on Saturday to name a planned common currency the "ECO". The idea of the single currency for the West African region was first mooted almost 30 years ago in the hope of boosting cross border trade and economic development. (TRT World)

Key Words: WA, Currency, ECO

Anti-Chinese protests in a Gambian fishing village show conflict of foreign investment in Africa - Gunjur is the site of one of three Chinese-owned fishmeal plants that have recently set up operations in the Gambia. The Guardian reportsthat the other factory sites at Kartong and Sanyang have both faced temporary closures due to complaints and protests linked to waste disposal methods. (Quartz Africa)

Key Words: China, Gambia, Investment

CENTRAL AFRICA

Trade relations: Central Africa prepares common external tariff - In pursuit of a single customs union across the CEMAC and ECCAS community spaces in Central Africa, a consolidated proposal of a single common external tariff (CET)   for both communities has been presented to all 11 member States of the subregion for reviews that would lead to adoption and implementation of the CET.  (ECA)

Key Words: Trade, Tariff, CA

SOUTHERN AFRICA

SADC TRF project gathers pace - Botswana has moved to implement the SADC Trade Related Facility (TRF) project aimed at easing technical barriers to trade through electronic commerce. The SADC TRF is a mechanism for financial and technical support given to SADC member states to assist them implement commitments made under the SADC Protocol on Trade and the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union and the SADC EPA Group. (Southern Times)

Key Words: Trade, SADC, EPA

G20 summit a chance for SA to boost foreign investment – SA will use the Group of 20 (G20) summit as a platform to boost efforts to attract foreign direct investment into the country, minister in the presidency Jackson Mthembu said on Thursday According to the latest UN world investment report, investment flows in SA more than doubled to $5.3bn in 2018, but this was largely attributable to intracompany transfers by established investors. (Business Day)

Key Words: SA, Investment, G -20 Summit

The tricky thing about double tax agreements - Double taxation agreements are generally aimed at relaxing tax rules in order to stimulate trade between countries, and although these treaties are negotiated bilaterally, they remain subject to different interpretations.The treaty between South Africa and the Netherlands has been to the courts in both countries this year, mainly to determine when a country is allowed to withhold dividend tax when companies pay dividends to foreign shareholder companies. (Money Web)

Key Words: SA, Tax, Trade