Regional integration in Africa will only be a reality if the countries seeking to increase their trade and grow their economies adopt industrialisation in their economies, show political will and improve on the standards of their products to compete with the set standards needed to break into the European and other big markets. Britain, the […]
Expanding Export and Investment Markets
The Geopolitical Importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: At Stake, A Liberal Economic Order
The return of geopolitics is all around us. Civil wars in the Middle East and Russian aggression in Ukraine properly dominate the headlines. But more quietly, a potentially more consequential strategic defeat looms for the United States: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) may fail. Why should we care that some trade pact we have barely heard […]
Is OPIC Too Small to Fail?
U.S. President Obama has made two trips to India during his time in office, and on both occasions Elizabeth Littlefield, chief executive of the Overseas Private Investment Corp., accompanied him. Littlefield heads the roughly 250-person government agency that has come to embody the administration’s business-first approach to global development, and her position has become central to […]
Recovering Egypt is Ripe for Investment
With Egypt’s economic conference barely a week away, anticipation about the opportunities it will unveil is high in the country as well as among foreign business communities. Those familiar with Egypt know that the scope for investing there is immense because expansions and improvements are needed in every economic sector. That is why the outcome […]
The Future of Trade: U.S. Rules. Or China’s Rules.
And you thought net neutrality was kind of boring? Well the Trans-Pacific Partnership isn’t the most scintillating of subjects, unless you’re the U.S. Trade Representative, but it might just be the most important piece of legislation that Congress will debate this year.Don’t take Paul Krugman’s word for it, though. He says that it’s “No Big […]
East Africa: U.S.-EAC Sign New Trade Pact
The United States Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman, last week announced new moves to ease trade between the US and the East African Community. “This agreement will help us lift the burdens that trade barriers impose, unlocking opportunity on both our continents,” he said in Washington. According to the USTR, trade of goods between the […]
U.S. Efforts to Power Africa
While on his Africa tour in June 2013, President Obama announced a new U.S. effort to expand energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa, where two thirds of the population are without electricity. The Power Africa initiative identifies and facilitates energy transactions between private enterprises and governments in African countries to generate 30,000 megawatts of new energy […]