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[经济报道]非洲贸易限制阻碍经济发展

The African Union has held countless meetings and conferences on how to increase trade betweenAfrican countries, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has organizedsimilar gatherings. Yet these efforts have failed to lead to a increase in intr a-Africa trade.

Currently, African countries do only 11 percent of their foreign trade with other countries on thecontinent. By comparison, Asian countries do 50 percent of their trade with Asian countries. Lastyear, the world bank reported that Africa loses billions of dollars every yea r because of tradebarriers.

This past July, a U.N. report urged African governments to provide more support to priva tebusinesses, reduce trade barriers and expand public services. The slow progress makes it difficultfor companies to do business in surrounding countries.

Jittu Horticulture PLC is Ethiopia's biggest exporter of horticulture products. The company 'sGeneral Manager Jan Prins says Ethiopia has huge possibilities for trade, but he says th ere are toomany difficulties when attempting to trade with neighboring countries.

"The major challenge is to reach these markets. And it can either be logistic problems lik e overflooded border areas, bad roads or no roads, trade barriers, political issues or secu rity issues. ForEthiopia it is very difficult to reach the markets in the surrounding countrie s."

Problems getting visas, corruption and high transportation costs are some of the barriers companies face when they attempt to trade within the continent. A truck in Africa will tra vel, onaverage, just nine kilometers an hour because of the many security or inspection s tations. As aresult, 40 percent of the cost of product is for transportation.

Intra-Africa trade, both imports and exports, totaled $131 billion in 2011. African Union c ountrieshave agreed to make the continent a free trade zone by 2017. Treasure Maphan ga is the Directorof the AU's Trade and Industry Department, she says governments mus t make that goal of acontinental free trade area a reality.

"I see that in many countries there is political will that exists at a certain level. Intra-Afric

a tradedoes not just depend on one ministry, it does not just depend on the head of stat e. It dependson the whole government machinery. And coordinating toward a specific go al."

The African Union will hold another conference on increasing Intra-Africa trade at the en d ofOctober

[农业报道]你看好转基因香蕉么？

Today, we take you to a small banana plantation near Kampala. The trees are healthy an d green,but Andrew Kiggundu does not like what he sees.

"The disease on the leaves you see right now is not the wilt, it is a different disease calle d blacksigatoka. It is just killing off the leaves and causing significant yield loss. This is a big problem,although of course not as much as the wilt, because the wilt just destroys th e whole plant."

Andrew Kiggundu works with the National Agricultural Research Organization, also know n asNARO. The Ugandan government agency is developing genetically engineer bananas. The newplants are meant to resist black sigatoka and banana bacterial wilt, which has b een destroying alarge amounts of the country's banana crop.

Uganda is the world's top consumer of bananas. NARO Research Director WilberforceTus hemereirwe says this is why it is so important to produce healthy plants.

"The disease keeps on moving around wiping out garden after garden, so you will go to areaswhere you find they have changed from banana to annual crops. That has already i ntroducedfood insecurity, because they are not used to handling annual crops."

The central African nation already permits testing of genetically modified organisms, or G wmakers are considering a bill that would permit the development and distributio n of suchorganisms through out the country. But some activists say genetically modified organisms wouldbe dangerous to human health and the environment.

Giregon Olupot is a soil biophysicist at Makerere University in Kampala.

"There are a range of options that risk to be wiped [out], just by this technology. With b