Author: Rudi van Blerk, tralac Internship Programme The historically low levels of intra-African trade have made Africa vulnerable to external economic shocks and have fostered a dependency on the rest of the world. As a result of these low levels of trade many African countries have not been able to use trade to enhance specialisation between [...]

Author:  Gerhard Erasmus ‘The main reason why Africa’s people are poor is because their leaders have made this choice.’ This is the opening sentence in a recent book about poverty in Africa and what to do about it.  The author argues, in a nutshell, that only political and institutional reforms will unlock Africa’s potential in [...]

Presenting collaborative research by the Trade Law Centre (tralac) and the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), this book focuses on the group of developing countries that are now commonly referred to as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and, since 2011, South Africa).  Key aspects of the trade and investment relationships among these countries are [...]

Authors:  Ron Sandrey and Tania Gill The Trade and Development Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) between South Africa and the European Union (EU) is an important trade agreement for South Africa, as it enables preferential access to its largest market for many product lines. The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) reports that it was signed in [...]

Author: Ron Sandrey Abstract: The world’s economic and trading environments have changed since the 2010 publication of tralac’s South Africa’s way ahead: Shall we samba? In this update to that publication tralac examines how the South American Mercosur economies of Brazil in particular have fared from these changes, with again a special focus on agriculture [...]

Author:  Prof. Colin McCarthy, tralac Associate Introduction The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is a customs union, as defined by having regional free trade behind a common external tariff (CET). This creates a common customs area covering the markets of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland (BLNS).  Contrary to the conventional model of a [...]

Author:  Harry Zarenda, tralac Associate Introduction: This discussion paper recognises that there are, at present, ongoing Southern African Development Community (SADC) initiatives underway to construct a comprehensive Industrial Policy Framework for the region. The purpose of this paper is to highlight certain pertinent issues that ought to be brought into focus in the design and construction of [...]

Author:  Eckart Naumann Introduction: The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) forms a part of United States trade legislation that provides non-reciprocal preferential market access to the US market for qualifying exports made in African beneficiary countries. The legislation was enacted under former President Bill Clinton in 2000, and extended (and to some extent broadened) [...]

Author: Harry Zarenda Since the publication of the draft bill, there has been much comment on the advantages and disadvantages of the new SEZ policy and process in the country, of which the CDE Roundtable added an important dimension. Given the renewed emphasis in economic policy debates on industrial policy and regional integration in the [...]

Author: Gerhard Erasmus, tralac Associate The South African Supreme Court of Appeal has, during the final week of September 2012,  handed down a judgment, giving effect to aspects of an earlier ruling by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal against Zimbabwe for violating certain SADC Treaty obligations. The obligations in question concerned the protection [...]

Author: Paul Kalenga Regional economic integration remains a viable development strategy for Africa, a continent characterised by small economies and markets. Integration of these markets can facilitate efficiencies in production, investment and trade, thus enhancing development outcomes. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has adopted a development integration approach which seeks to address production, infrastructure [...]

Author: Gerhard Erasmus The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has set itself very ambitious regional integration goals. There is now general agreement that more realistic goals and a better understanding of the integration process, the legal obligations and the outcomes are required.  Even with scaled-downed expectations the efforts of the members and SADC need to [...]

This Policy Brief starts from the premise that regional economic integration makes sense for Africa; a continent characterised by small markets, small economies and small countries. The creation of an integrated economic space can facilitate efficiencies in production, investment and trade, thus enhancing development outcomes. The 32nd Summit of Heads of State and Government of [...]

Author:  Gustav Brink With trade liberalization worldwide, anti-dumping is one of the few measures available to industry to protect itself against international trade, provided such trade is unfair. South Africa in 1914 became the fourth country in the world to adopt anti-dumping legislation, while in 1921 it became the first to impose anti-dumping duties. It [...]

Authors:  Ron Sandrey and Taku Fundira Intra-industry trade (IIT) is defined as the simultaneous import and export of goods within the same industry, and the IIT data presented here essentially shows to what extent trade is balanced between South Africa and selected partners in specific lines. The methodology simply compares the differences between imports and [...]

The Monitoring Regional Integration Yearbook reviews regional integration developments in Southern Africa. We are currently inviting proposals for the 2012 edition of the Yearbook. This Project is supported by the Trade Law Centre (tralac) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Proposal for papers are invited for the 2012 edition of the Yearbook, focusing on regional developments, [...]

This is tralac’s third book focusing on the Tripartite Free Trade Area (T-FTA).  The two previous books are available on the tralac website (www.tralac.org).  Following an economic assessment of the impact of T-FTA, with specific emphasis on agriculture and agri-business development opportunities in this region, as well as non-tariff barriers that limit intraregional trade and [...]

Author: Eckart Naumann European countries through the European Commission (EC) have embarked on a reform process that aims to focus the non-reciprocal trade preferences offered under the European Union (EU) Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) on fewer countries. The proposed reforms can be placed within a much broader context not only of lower EU import [...]