Thursday February 17, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

South-South trade is growing fast, but barriers among developing countries are still up to seven times higher than those imposed by the developed world, a representative from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said. Speaking at a Frontier Advisory seminar at the JSE, OECD Development Centre director Mario Pezzini said that South–South trade had experienced tremendous growth in recent years, with exports from developing countries now constituting 37% of global trade, of which about 50% related to South–South trade.
He added that the sharp increase in trade between developing countries, despite barriers remaining, just shows the increasing importance of these trading relationships.

Anti–government protests inspired by popular revolts that toppled rulers in Tunisia and Egypt are gaining pace around the Middle East and North Africa despite political and economic concessions by nervous governments. Clashes were reported for the first time in tightly controlled Libya, sandwiched between Egypt and Tunisia, while new protests erupted in Bahrain, Yemen, Iran and Iraq. The latest demonstrations against long-serving rulers came after US President Barack Obama, commenting on the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, declared: "The world is changing...if you are governing these countries, you've got to get out ahead of change, you can't be behind the curve."

As South Africa grappled with the proposed introduction of a carbon tax, consultancy firm Africa International Advisors (AIA) has warned that carbon regulation must not disadvantage South Africa economically, relative to other competing economies, given the country’s reliance on coal. AIA director Tim Hough suggested options that he said would reduce actual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, rather that just generate another tax revenue stream for the National Treasury, which could potentially prejudice South Africa’s competitiveness, and result in job losses. Stakeholders were warned of unintended consequences as a result of imposing the current carbon tax proposals, and said that South Africa appeared to be taking on an inordinate burden with respect to GHG reduction commitments.

Also making headlines:
A Minister said that Zimbabwe will proceed with plans to take majority stakes in foreign-owned diamond mines but will spare a Chinese-owned mine from a State takeover.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that while he hoped Egypt's efforts to achieve democracy succeeded, he had to "prepare for the worst" as well.
And, protesters in Libya were planning to take to the streets for a "day of rage," inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, but rights groups warned of a possible crackdown by security forces.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.