Oil, Inflation, Ivory

Several members of the Southern African Development Community have agreed to develop a joint plan to sell wildlife products, in a clear challenge to CITES.

CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora that took effect July 1, 1975, in order to protect endangered wildlife. It restricts the sale of wildlife products, including a ban on the sale of ivory that’s been in place since 1989.

Tight conservation budgets as well as relatively robust local elephant populations and rising incidences of human-wildlife conflict in Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe have led these countries to issue a clarion call. In a statement published on the final day of last week's Elephant Summit in Zimbabwe, representatives of these African nations asked the CITES Secretariat not to interfere on matters of “ domestic trade, the sovereignty of states and their rights to sustainable use of wildlife.” The statement also noted they would report to CITES signatory nations on the costs of living with wildlife.

Meanwhile, Katto Wambua of the Kenya-based wildlife conservation organization Space for Giants said that any sale of ivory would allow illegal products to be mixed with legal ones, and therefore would effectively encourage poaching.

CITES has not responded to OZY’s request for comment.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) projects the continent’s growth rate to decelerate by 2.8 percentage points to 4.1% this year, down from 6.9% in 2021. At the bank’s annual meetings, the AfDB said that last year’s strong growth was due to easing of COVID-19 restrictions, recovery in global demand and higher global commodity prices that boosted revenues in oil-exporting nations, as well as growth in domestic consumption and investment. In 2022, however, AfDB projects Africa’s growth to be impeded by inflationary pressures from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as low vaccination rates. (Source: AfDB)

Writing in the Wall Street Journal on Monday, President Joe Biden championed the Federal Reserve’s efforts to combat inflation. Earlier this month, the Fed approved a half-percentage point interest rate hike to tackle rising prices that are particularly sharp in the energy and food sectors. The Fed has also announced it would shrink its $9 trillion balance sheet to reduce liquidity and cool rising prices. Biden said his office would use available means to reduce the rising cost of living, as statistics from April released last Friday by the Department of Commerce hinted at a slight downturn in consumption expenditures. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

The world’s biggest economy is experiencing its highest inflation — 8.3% in April — in almost four decades. Firms are expected to see higher costs going forward, and 20% of companies surveyed in May with revenues ranging from $500 million to $100 billion said they are planning to cut costs in order to offset inflation, according to market researcher and consultancy firm Gartner Inc. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

Chilean beverage titan Compañía Cervecerías Unidas S.A. (CCU) is preparing for a decline in demand amid shifting economic winds. While the company’s costs have risen due to inflation, it will now have to grapple with reduced consumption rates. “I would expect that in the second half of this year, people’s consumption will be a little more restricted,” CCU’s Business Head Antonio Cruz told Bloomberg News. Regional vendor of Heineken, CCU is controlled by Chile’s richest family. (Source: Bloomberg)

The European Council and European Commission have agreed to ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the year’s end. According to the BBC, European Council head Charles Michel said this deal cuts off a major source of financing for the Russian war machine. The European bloc also agreed to cut off Russia’s biggest bank (the state-owned Sberbank) from all SWIFT transactions and will ban E.U. companies from providing certain business services to Russia. (Sources: Bloomberg, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, European Union)

The British multinational consumer goods company, Unilever Plc., maker of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Dove soap, among many other products, is set to appoint Nelson Peltz to its board to reinvigorate the firm’s performance. Peltz, who previously served on the board of Procter & Gamble Co., owns a 1.5% stake in Unilever through his investment firm Trian Fund Management, L.P. The announcement sent a boost to Unilever’s share price, which was up as much as 7.7%. (Source: The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg)

on The Carlos Watson Show!

Russian President Vladimir Putin may turn to India and China for support when the European Union bans most of Russian oil. The European Council and European Commission’s agreement to ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the year’s end is expected to cost Russia up to $10 billion in lost exports annually — and leave Russia without a market for its “Urals” brand of crude oil. While Asia may be in a position partially to offset the E.U. ban, several issues stand in the way, including refining capacity, as this type of crude oil requires sophisticated processing. (Source: Al Jazeera, Bloomberg)

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has taken a jab at President Joe Biden and his recently announced economic and trade pact with 12 Indo-Pacific nations. “The so-called Indo-Pacific Economic Framework recently rolled out by the U.S. claims to build a free, open, and inclusive new order, but how can any economic frame call itself free if it doesn’t lower tariffs?” said Wang, alluding to U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. “How can it be called inclusive if it purposefully excludes China, the largest market in the region and in the world?” (Source: Bloomberg)

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