By Tom Miles

GENEVA (Reuters) – South Africa is proposing to put emergency “safeguard” tariffs on imports of certain flat hot-rolled steel products from July, it said in a filing published by the World Trade Organization on Thursday.

The tariff would be in place for three years, and fall from 12 percent in the first year to 10 percent in the second year and 8 percent in the third, it said.

South Africa said the proposal was based on a final determination by its International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) that domestic production had suffered serious damage from an unforeseen surge in imports.

The analysis of damage to the domestic industry was based on information from AcelorMittal South Africa Limited, which constituted more than 70 percent of total domestic production of the affected products, it said.

ITAC began investigating the case for safeguard tariffs in March 2016.

South Africa offered to consult with other WTO members on the proposed tariff. Many developing countries are exempt from the tariff, but imports from major producers such as China and India would be covered by it.

In a separate case, South Africa had also been considering putting a 10 percent safeguard tariff on cold-rolled steel.

Last November, South Africa said ITAC had made a preliminary determination that safeguard tariffs would be justified.

But earlier this week South Africa told a WTO committee meeting that ITAC had recommended ending the investigation into cold-rolled steel, according to a trade official who attended the meeting.

South Africa’s representative told the WTO meeting that ITAC’s decision was not final and the government still needed to consider comments from all parties, the trade official said.

Emergency tariffs are used against an unforeseen surge of imports that threatens domestic producers. They are allowed under WTO rules but have to be notified to the WTO and justified by data, and can be challenged by other WTO members.

(Reporting by Tom Miles, editing by David Evans and Jane Merriman)

Read more

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Russia’s Norilsk Nickel said on Friday it had filed a lawsuit against the government of Botswana to try to recoup $271 million plus damages it says it is owed from the aborted sale of a 50 percent stake in the Nkomati mine in South Africa.

Botswana’s state-run BCL Mine pulled out of a 3 billion pula ($281 million) deal in October last year to buy a 50 percent stake in Nkomati Nickel Mine from Norilsk due to lack of funds.

Norilsk said in a statement it had served a notice of proceedings on the attorney general of Botswana, the minister of mineral resources and the minister of finance.

The mining company said that funding for the deal would come from or be guaranteed by the government but the state had made no effort to complete the deal.

“The government has displayed a complete disregard for the fair, frank and reasonable dealing with outsiders which BCL’s insolvent circumstances demanded,” Norilsk Nickel Africa CEO Michael Marriott said in a statement.

Norilsk had previously also filed a lawsuit in December 2016 against the BCL Group, saying it had failed to honour its obligations under the sale agreement.

Botswana officials were not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Ed Stoddard and Adrian Croft)

Read more

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s central bank said on Friday it had issued a licence to DIB Bank Kenya Ltd, a unit of United Arab Emirates-based Dubai Islamic Bank, to operate in the east African nation.

“DIB intends to exclusively offer shariah-compliant banking services in Kenya,” the Central Bank of Kenya said in a statement. “DIB’s entry will expand the offerings in the market, particularly in the nascent shariah-compliant banking niche.”

(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)

Read more

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe has met all conditions to clear arrears to the World Bank and African Development Bank, paving the way for possible future funding from the International Monetary Fund, its finance minister said on Thursday.

The southern African nation in October last year cleared its 15-year-old financial arrears with the IMF, in a major step towards its first loan programme with the Fund since 1999.

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in a statement that facilities negotiated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to repay the $1.75 billion arrears had been “scrutinised and scrutinised” by the World Bank and AfDB, who were satisfied.

“Clearance of debt arrears is expected to open the door to foreign finance inflows and possible debt treatment by the Paris Club and non-Paris Club Bilateral Creditors through an IMF financing programme,” Chinamasa said.

He did not give details on where cash-strapped Zimbabwe had obtained the money to clear the arrears.

President Robert Mugabe’s government is struggling with dwindling foreign exchange inflows and acute shortages of cash that meant that banks have been limiting withdrawals.

Without foreign funding, the government has relied on tax inflows to support its budget, 90 percent of which goes towards paying its civil service.

(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Read more

PARIS (Reuters) – Iraq will go with the consensus reached by OPEC when the exporting group meets in Vienna next month to discuss an extension of the group’s deal on production cuts, the country’s oil minister said on Thursday.

“Now we’re going on the 25th of May to OPEC and we’re definitely going to be in line with OPEC’s final decision and collective decisions,” Jabar al-Luaibi told a conference in Paris.

Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer, was in full compliance with the OPEC-led supply pact reached last year and has achieved about 97 percent of its output reduction target, Luaibi said.

OPEC, Russia and other producers originally agreed to cut production by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) for six months from Jan. 1 to support the market. It is expected that the producers will extend the pact for a further six months when they meet in May.

(Reporting by Alex Lawler; Editing by David Goodman)

Read more

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A committee set up to review South Africa’s tax system on Tuesday launched a public debate on one of the most controversial possible moves on its agenda – a wealth tax.

The Davis Tax Committee (DTC) announced it was inviting submissions from South Africans on whether the government should implement such a tax to lessen the glaring inequality in Africa’s most industrialised economy.

“The DTC was specifically requested by the minister of finance to inquire as to whether it would be appropriate to introduce additional forms of wealth taxation and the feasibility of doing so,” the team said in a statement.

“The distribution of wealth in South Africa is highly unequal.”

Appointed by former Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in 2013 and headed by judge Dennis Davis, the Davis Tax Committee is tasked with assessing the role of the tax system in promoting growth, jobs, development and fiscal sustainability.

It said it was inviting submissions by the end of May on the desirability and feasibility of wealth taxes on land and property over and above those charged currently by municipal authorities, or a national wealth tax.

The committee plans to meet next month to discuss submissions.

President Jacob Zuma has called for a radical transformation of the economy following losses in local elections last year partly caused by anger over deep inequality that persists more than two decades after apartheid.

South Africa is grappling with weak economic growth and unemployment of more than 25 percent. The white minority still controls a disproportionately big share of the economy.

(Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by James Macharia and Andrew Roche)

Read more

GABORONE (Reuters) – Botswana’s Debswana Diamond Company has started processing ore from the $3 billion expansion of its Jwaneng diamond mine, popularly known as Cut 8, the company said on Tuesday.

The Cut 8 project, which Debswana started in 2010, is meant to uncover 100 million carats of diamonds and extend the life of the world’s richest diamond mine to 2024.

Addressing stakeholders, Debswana Managing Director Balisi Bonyongo said 88 percent of an estimated 500 million tonnes of waste above diamond bearing ore had been stripped away by the end of March.

“Cut 8 is on track to meet its objectives and ore from the mine expansion project is now being delivered to the main treatment plant,” Bonyongo said.

Debswana, which is jointly owned by Botswana’s government and De Beers, owns three other diamond mines in the country, one of which was placed under care and maintenance at the beginning of 2016.

Bonyongo said Debswana would produce about 20.5 million carats this year, or slightly more as the company continues with its strategy of producing to demand.

Debswana will also close its 42-year-old Letlhakane diamond mine this year and it will be replaced by a tailings plant, which is expected to be commissioned before June.

“The Letlhakane mine has come to the end of its life span. We have invested 2.1 billion pula into a tailings plant which is expected to mine about 800,000 carats over 20 years from the dumps,” Bonyongo said.

Figures released on Monday by Anglo American, which owns 85 percent of De Beers, show that Debswana’s production dropped by a marginal 3 percent to 5.2 million carats in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the same period in 2016.

(Writing by Nqobile Dludla; editing by David Clarke)

Read more