In brief
Welcome to this edition of the Trade Finance Insight. In this edition, we lead with an in-depth interview with Dr George Elombi, Executive Vice President and Member of the Board at African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The interview will discuss the challenges of implementing the AfCFTA, the successes it has experienced so far, the anticipated opportunities it will bring to the region in mid to long term and the role Afreximbank is playing to contribute to its success.
Secondly, we examine the rapidly emerging concept of Transition Finance, which seeks to meet the financing needs of borrowers operating in high emitting sectors. A huge amount of capital is required to get economies on track for net-zero emissions by 2050 but the requirements of established green and sustainability-linked financing products can often not be met by those operating in high emitting sectors, hence the need for new and innovative financing solutions to be developed by the market.
Our concluding article outlines the key elements of a proposed UK piece of legislation, namely the Electronic Trade Documents Bill, at the center of which are plans to bestow upon certain digital trade documents the same legal recognition as their paper equivalent. The passing of this Bill into legislation is anticipated to have a huge impact on the trade finance world globally given it is estimated that 80% of bills of lading alone operate worldwide under English law. This article continues our focus on the theme of digitalization in trade finance globally – a topic that we have provided detailed coverage on in this publication over the last three years highlighting its importance to the development of the industry. Links to all previous articles on this topic are provided within this article.
Our regular Sanctions and Export Controls update page features some interesting reads on, amongst other things, an EU perspective on sanctions enforcement around the G7, a piece looking at the focus by the US, EU, UK and other on third countries and anti-circumvention of Russia sanctions and a webinar on key lessons from the Russia/Ukraine crisis that could help prepare for the next geopolitical event.
We have included some of our latest resources and tools on both the topics featured in the articles and relating to wider trade finance issues. And finally, we are delighted to share some new awards the team has won.
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