The Government has struck at the heart of beneficiaries of cheap sugar imports after setting up a committee to monitor the flow of the commodity into the country from the Comesa region.

Angola's economy may be booming on the back of high oil prices and strong diamond exports, but six years after a peace deal ended the 27-year civil war, unemployment stands at around 65 percent.

Angelina Sidumo is one of the hundreds of traders that throng the busy train station in the Mozambican capital, Maputo, on most Wednesday afternoons to catch the once-weekly train south to Chicualacuala town in Gaza Province, an 18-hour journey covering nearly 500km.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki announced that their countries have a "strategic" relationship, before signing a framework cooperation agreement in Pretoria, which paves the way for future arrangements on technology transfer and concrete deals involving oil and food.

Ghana and The European Union on Wednesday signed a groundbreaking trade agreement that would stop imports of illegal timber into Europe from Ghana.

Bookshops are still empty as just few customers come in to buy textbooks.

Sugar import and export regulations recently introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture contravene the Comesa Treaty, Attorney-General Amos Wako has ruled.

Mandarins at the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) will start having jitters over the next few months as MPs start pushing for freedom of Tanzanians to buy shares in regional companies being floated on the stock exchange.

Sudanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Awad Taha, has stated that plans are underway to revive bilateral agreements and trade between Nigeria and Sudan.

South Africa and Italy are to advance North-South relations on Saturday when Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma meets her Italian counterpart at Lake Como.

When discussing cocoa trading, a clear distinction has to be made between the actual or physical markets and the futures or terminal markets. Nearly all cocoa coming from origin countries is sold through the physical market.

A group, known as Coalition Against Import Duty fraud, had accused the company of evading import duty and port charges by under declaring its cement import from 25,000 to 15,000 metric tonnes (mt).

For the first time ever, two Ugandan exporting firms have been certified by the European Union private standard called Globa Gap.

Bookshops are still empty as just few customers come in to buy textbooks.

Milling companies can now import maize, after the Government opened the borders for such imports this week.

UGANDA'S cocoa production has increased to 10,006 tonnes in 2007 from 3,700 tonnes in 2001.

THE Government has written a national trade policy to make trade easier and eradicate poverty in the country.

MPIGI District farmers have embraced hot pepper growing for the export market. Twenty farmers under Awagwa Ekku Co-operative Society in Nyanama have met the minimum standards for the European market.

THERE was bad and good news yesterday when the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) announced vehicle sales and export figures.

The relationship between development, trade and climate change has come under the spotlight as leaders seek practical ways to move rapidly towards a low-carbon world economy.

Bilateral agreements signed between South Africa and Venezuela proves the relationship is "real, actual and practical," says President Thabo Mbeki, after meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday.

After a spirited appeal, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, considered poorer than Kenya, will have some protection from trade imbalances, as the region prepares for a free movement of goods, services and labour come 2010.

The Nigerian High Commissioner to Uganda, Fidel Ayoyu, has said that Uganda will start exporting beef to Nigeria because the country's big population provides market opportunities to Ugandan farmers.

A major international conference gets underway in Accra, Ghana, today, and the thrust is effectiveness of donor aid.

Members of Parliament want a law to promote fair trade. The Soroti Municipality MP, Charles Ekemu, said there is need for a proper policy to support local investors and boost investments.