China was WAEMU’s least profitable trade partner in Q2, 2018

Public finance

Tuesday, 09 October 2018 12:15

China was WAEMU’s least profitable trade partner in Q2, 2018

(Togo First) - Africa remains WAEMU’s best commercial partner at the end of Q2, 2018, Ecofin Agency learned from official figures. Even though it dropped by 8% on a year-to-year basis, the trade surplus between the union and its main African partners was estimated at CFA365.3 billion.

There is namely a positive balance of CFA260.5 billion with South Africa thanks to gold exported by Mali and Burkina Faso. With the other ECOWAS countries that are not part of the WAEMU, the positive balance was CAF138.9 billion. Nigeria and Ghana are particular markets for the region with trade surplus estimated at CA38.4 billion and CFA44.2 billion respectively.

The most important trade deficit registered by WAEMU during the period under review was with China. Indeed, this partner received less than 2% of exports from West Africa but supplied 15% of the sub-region’s imports. This resulted in a trade deficit estimated at CFA567 billion. Globally, with Asia, the sub-region’s trade deficit was CFA606 billion during the period under review.

Let’s note that WAEMU’s overall negative balance rose during Q2, 2018 to reach CFA421 billion against CFA286.1 billion by the same period last year.

The figures demonstrate that the region will save enough if it produces more of its foods since they constitute the larger part of imports with an invoice of CFA1,121 billion.

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At the fifteenth position, worldwide, and first in Africa, under the Starting a Business index of the 2020 Doing Business ranking, Togo sustains its reformative dynamics with more reforms….

ENFORCING CONTRACTS (more info)

Compared to some years ago when it was one of the lowest rankers under the Doing Business’ Enforcing Contracts indicator, Togo, leveraging many efforts to improve its business climate, was able to jump significantly on the index in the recent years... .

CONTRACT EXECUTION (more info)

Creation of special chambers of commerce for small debts • Creation of chambers of commerce at the Court of Appeal • Civil and commercial cases now handled by distinct clerks • Establishment of commercial courts in Lomé and Kara • Lawyers and bailiffs now have access to the FORSETI COMMERCIAL platform • A maximum period of 100 days was fixed to settle a commercial dispute .

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In comparison to previous years,Togo has significantly improved its ranking under the“Trading across borders” indicator by adopting multiple reforms that focus mainly on the digitization and reduction in delays, for import and export procedures related to import and export.

In comparison to previous years, Togo has significantly improved its ranking on the “Trading across borders” index by adopting multiple reforms that focus mainly on the digitalization and reduction in delays, for import and export procedures related to import and export.

CONSTRUCTION PERMIT (more info)

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