Features

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — President Donald Trump said the U.S. could pursue a “complete decoupling from China” in response to unspecified conditions, his most forceful statement yet on the souring ties with Beijing. In a tweet Thursday, Trump refuted comments a day earlier by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who said a full decoupling of the world’s two biggest economies was not “a reasonable policy option.” It was not Ambassador Lighthizer’s fault (yesterday…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — Former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s pending memoir is living up to its publisher’s hype as “the book President Donald Trump doesn’t want you to read.” Trump’s Justice Department is heading to court Friday in a last-ditch attempt to block the publication of “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” due to be released June 23, even as excerpts that have already appeared in the media…

DAR ES SALAM (Capital Markets in Africa) — Tanzania’s maverick President John Magufuli has used his strong personality to cow corrupt civil servants and force foreign mining companies to pay millions of dollars in outstanding tax. The coronavirus may be less responsive. Last week, he became the first African leader to declare victory over the virus, even though health data haven’t been released for more than a month. He’s criticized the national laboratory for exaggerating…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson will talk his cabinet through his plans for easing the U.K.’s lockdown on Tuesday after officials reported the lowest number of daily deaths since restrictions were imposed. The prime minister said last month that non-essential retailers would be able to reopen on June 15 if the threat of the virus continued to recede, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday’s positive data means the government can press…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — The campaign to lead the World Trade Organization during the most turbulent period of its 25-year existence has officially begun. Playing out against the backdrop of a pandemic, a worldwide recession, the U.S.-China battle for trade supremacy and the American presidential election, there couldn’t be more at stake. But Brazilian Director-General Roberto Azevedo’s decision to step down at the end of August, a year before his term ends, also…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Africa’s biggest program to halt the coronavirus is being thwarted by a global shortage of tests and a lack of capacity to process those that have been administered. South Africa in March unveiled plans to test 30,000 people a day, only weeks after the first infection was diagnosed. Today, with more than 940,000 tests completed and 12 million people screened, its program is by far the most comprehensive on…