Author: Rudi van Blerk, tralac Internship Programme tralac’s Internship Programme provides an opportunity for recent graduates to work on trade-related matters, specifically relevant to countries in eastern and southern Africa. tralac hosts interns for a period of 2-6 months, during which time they work with tralac staff on research, training and public dialogue programmes. Rudi van Blerk spent time at tralac during the [...]

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 [...]

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: 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:  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 [...]

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 [...]

Author: Ron Sandrey South Africa is currently reviewing and formulating its industrial policy. The objective of this paper is not so much to present an examination of the South African Industrial Policy per se but rather to assess its industrial policy in a wider sense as to how it relates to and integrates and interacts [...]

Authors:  Ron Sandrey and Hans G. Jensen Introduction: The overall generalisation is made from the study that South Africa does not ‘measure up’ in terms of economic size, but fits the middle patterns of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in recent years where the perceived concept of the BRICs dynamic GDP growth is biased due [...]

Author: Paul Kruger Introduction: The main focus of this paper is the effect that international obligations and commitments can have on the local establishment of foreign companies. The relevance of international commitments made by South Africa at the multilateral level became prevalent during the recent merger between Walmart and Massmart. What is the role, in [...]

Author: Prof. Colin McCarthy Introduction In June 2004 the writer presented a paper at a conference On the euro outside the euro-zone: the South African perspective.  The paper addressed the lessons that southern Africa could learn from European Union (EU) monetary integration and specifically whether the region can take their cue from the euro. The [...]

Author:  Taku Fundira Introduction: Since the beginning of the new millennium we are increasingly noticing the influence on the structure of the world economy not only of some major emerging markets, namely Brazil, India and China, from a developing country perspective, but also of the rise of Russia (since the collapse of the Soviet Union). [...]

The Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) is a non-reciprocal trade programme that has been adopted by a number of developed countries to provide trade preferences to developing and least-developed countries. The GSP had its formal origins in 1971 when exemptions to the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) principle were introduced under the General Agreement on Tariffs [...]

The COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite was created in 2006 to assist in the process of harmonising programmes and policies within and between the three Regional Economic Communities of COMESA, EAC and SADC and to advance the establishment of the African Economic Community.  The three main pillars of the Tripartite strategy, as contained in the Vision and Strategy [...]