African free trade zone planning is under way (The Christian Science Monitor)

Freetown, Sierra Leone – Trade officials from across Africa met in Johannesburg this week to announce the formal start of negotiations toward a free trade zone that would stretch the length of the continent, incorporating more than 500 million people, 26 countries, and nearly a trillion dollars of economic output.

The proposed deal, which would eliminate many trade barriers between participating countries, would merge three existing trade blocs in eastern, central, and southern Africa. It would include Africa's two biggest economies (South Africa and Egypt) and its fastest growing (the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, and Botswana).

The project, which has been dubbed the “African Grand Free Trade Area,” is a bold idea, but not a new one. African leaders first made their plans for a 26-country trading bloc public at a summit in Uganda in October 2008. Since then, they have made little progress toward that goal.

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“We all know that this is a very long process,” says El Hadji Diouf, the executive director of the African Agency for Trade and Development, a Geneva-based think tank. “But an FTA like this would be a very good thing for the African community.”

“If they have strong political leadership, they will get there,” Mr. Diouf added. “I don’t think they have a choice: Development comes about through a better flow of trade.”

Commerce within Africa remains limited. Just 10 percent of the continent’s trade is conducted between African countries, while the rest goes overseas. That low volume is a result of Africa’s weak infrastructure, dense red tape, and corrupt border officials, among other challenges.

“Today, there are 40 to 50 barriers from one African border to another,” the prominent Sudanese businessman Mo Ibrahim told a business conference in Paris in March. “In such a context, it is obvious that if you carry perishable foodstuffs, they will be lost before you reach your destination. We need to break up those barriers and guarantee the free movement of people and goods."

Rob Davies, South Africa’s minister of trade and industry, said in a media briefing on Monday that the first stage of the “Grand FTA” negotiations will focus on eliminating tariffs and other traditional barriers to goods trade, while a second round will tackle more delicate issues such as intellectual property and trade in services.

a€?The timeframe for this is three years,a€

Once finalized, the FTA should be opened up to all of the continenta€™s regions, said Diouf of the African Agency for Trade and Development.

a€?It is important that this process doesna€™t exclude other African countries,a€

African nations are not alone in seeking out a regional approach to freeing up trade. Coalitions like Mercosur, the South American customs union, and ASEAN, the Southeast Asian economic group, are also planning to deepen and broaden their economic integration.

These robust regional forums contrast starkly with the 153-country “Doha Round” trade talks at the World Trade Organization, which are now limping into their second decade and have yet to produce any tangible results.

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EBay and PayPal sue Google over trade secrets (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – EBay and its online payment unit, PayPal Inc, on Thursday sued Google Inc and two executives for stealing trade secrets related to mobile payment systems.

The two executives, Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius, were formerly with PayPal and led the launch on Thursday of Google's own mobile payment system in partnership with MasterCard, Citigroup and phone company Sprint.

The suit highlights the growing battle by a wide range of companies from traditional finance to Silicon Valley trying to take a major stake in what has been described as a $1 trillion opportunity in mobile payments. The mobile phone is seen as the digital personal wallet of the future.

The eBay suit said Bedier worked for nine years at PayPal, most recently serving as vice president of platform, mobile and new ventures. He joined Google on January 24 this year.

Tilenius was at eBay from 2001 to October 2009 and served as a consultant to the company until March 2010. The suit says Tilenius joined Google in February 2010 as vice president of e-commerce.

Bedier is accused in the suit of having "misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers."

The suit accused Tilenius of recruiting Bedier, thereby breaking a contractual agreement with eBay. It also claims Bedier attempted to recruit former colleagues still at PayPal.

Ebay said PayPal and Google worked closely together for three years until this year on developing a commercial deal where PayPal would serve as a payment option for mobile application purchases on Google's Android phones.

It said Bedier was the senior PayPal executive leading and finalizing negotiations with Google on Android during this period.

It also claimed Bedier transferred up-to-date versions of documents outlining PayPal's mobile payment strategies to his non-PayPal computer just days before leaving PayPal for Google.

"By hiring Bedier, with his trade secret knowledge of PayPal's plans and understanding of Google's weaknesses as viewed by the industry leader (PayPal), Google bought the most comprehensive and sophisticated critique of its own problems available," the suit said.

Google spokesman Aaron Zamost said the company had not yet received a copy of the complaint would not be able to comment until it has had a chance to review it.

Google and PayPal have done battle in the recent past in online payments via computers with the launch of Google Checkout in 2006, but Checkout has had a minimal impact on PayPal's market dominance.

The suit was filed at Superior Court of the State of California, county of Santa Clara, Case No: CV20l863.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke, additional reporting by Jennifer Saba; Editing by Gary Hill, Bernard Orr and Matt Driskill)

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China trade surplus up to $11.4 billion

(FT) -- China's trade balance rebounded strongly in April as exports surged and imports came in lower than expected, according to figures released by Beijing on Tuesday.

The trade surplus hit $11.4bn in April, far larger than most analysts expected and well above the surplus of $140m in March.

China recorded its first quarterly trade deficit in seven years in the January to March period but the unexpectedly large surplus in April will increase international pressure on Beijing to allow faster appreciation of its tightly controlled currency, the renminbi.

Top Chinese officials, including Wang Qishan, the vice-premier in charge of finance, are currently in Washington for the bilateral Strategic and Economic Dialogue, where the value of the renminbi has been a key topic of discussion.

"Today's trade data shows that Chinese exporters continue to benefit from a supportive exchange rate," said Brian Jackson, an economist at Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong. "This number will likely add to the pressure from Washington for Beijing to allow faster currency appreciation, but more importantly should persuade Chinese policy-makers that a stronger [renminbi] can be tolerated by the economy and is warranted as part of their efforts to curb price pressures."

China's central bank governor and other officials have made statements that indicate greater willingness to use appreciation of the renminbi to help tackle persistent inflation, which the government has said is its key economic task for this year.

The renminbi has gained about 2.3 per cent against the US dollar in the last six months but has lost significant ground against other major currencies as the dollar has weakened.

On a seasonally adjusted basis Chinese exports increased 35.1 per cent in April from the same month a year earlier and grew 12.3 per cent from March, the customs bureau said.

Seasonally adjusted imports in April rose 27.4 per cent from a year earlier and 7.4 per cent from the previous month.

Analysts were divided over whether weaker-than-expected imports signalled a slowdown in the Chinese economy in April or whether already large inventories in the country had allowed Chinese companies to put off commodity imports at a time when prices were unusually high.

© The Financial Times Limited 2011

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