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Building capacity to help Africa trade better

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Changing port logistics in SADC

16 May 2022 ~ David Christianson
South Africa’s harbours are inefficient and unreliable. After a decade of neglect, government is finally implementing a plan to turn around the situation by attracting private sector inv...read more

Seeing the unseen: Africa’s fastest growing companies

16 May 2022 ~ David Christianson
The Financial Times (FT) index of Africa’s fastest growing companies in 2022, compiled in partnership with data tech company Statista, provides strong evidence for the sometimes conteste...read more

Economic Growth and the Environment – Is Green Growth Possible?

21 Apr 2022 ~ Gita Briel
The idea that we need to decouple economic growth and resource use is promoted by a number of high-level policies, including the European Green Deal and the United Nations Sustainable Deve...read more

How the War in Ukraine has undermined Globalisation

11 Apr 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is in its sixth week now. It has not been the successful Blitzkrieg that Vladimir Putin had hoped for. Ukrainian forces are putting up a brave defence of th...read more

Reciprocity in the AfCFTA Negotiations

11 Apr 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
There are two sets of norms governing the negotiations for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement and its Protocols. They are the guiding principles and the modalities ...read more

The AfCFTA Tariff Negotiations face unique Challenges

11 Apr 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus, Trudi Hartzenberg
Preferential trade in goods under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will only become possible once schedules of tariff concessions have been agreed and have entered into for...read more

Trade in Services Negotiations Update

11 Apr 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus, Trudi Hartzenberg
The Decisions, Declarations, Resolution and Motions adopted at the Thirty-Fifth Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Assembly took place in Addis Ababa on 5-6 February 2022. The Deci...read more

Recent African Union Assembly Decisions on AfCFTA Support

11 Apr 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus, Trudi Hartzenberg
The thirty-fifth Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Assembly, which took place in Addis Ababa on 5-6 February 2022, produced a detailed document containing several decisions and de...read more

African Union Assembly Decision of February 2022 on Trade in Goods under the AfCFTA

11 Apr 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
The Decisions, Declarations, Resolution and Motions adopted at the Thirty-Fifth Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Assembly, which took place in Addis Ababa on 5-6 February 2022, h...read more

Africa’s Gold Rush shifts West

30 Mar 2022 ~ David Christianson
It is widely known that South Africa’s gold mining industry has been in decline for many years. But what may be less well-known outside specialist circles is the extent to which West Afr...read more

Time to bring coherence to South Africa’s energy future

28 Mar 2022 ~ David Christianson
By the end of March, the route plan for South Africa’s return to energy security was looking more murky than ever with possible plans for gas, renewables and nuclear jostling for positio...read more

Net zero is a problem for African development

28 Mar 2022 ~ David Christianson
The possibility of a global ban on fossil fuels has ominous developmental implications for much of Africa. Nearly 50 percent of the continent’s exports are made up of hydrocarbon product...read more

Climate Change Impacts, Adaption and Vulnerability in Africa: Key Findings in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report

17 Mar 2022 ~ Gita Briel
Read the full blog HERE The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released the Working Group II’s contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) titled Climate Change 2022...read more

South African lemon juice exports face American anti-dumping duties

07 Mar 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
On December 30, 2021, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC or I.T.C.) received a request from Ventura Coastal LLC, an American firm, to undertake an investigation under ...read more

Does the AfCFTA Protocol on Trade in Services allow for Flexibilities?

07 Mar 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
This question is being asked in the context of national preparations for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) trade in services negotiations. In principle, all African Union Me...read more

What needs to be done to begin commercially meaningful trade under the AfCFTA?

07 Mar 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus, Trudi Hartzenberg
A press statement by the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) released on 29th January 2022 contains an announcement on the start of trade in goods under the AfC...read more

How relevant is the Protocol on Relations between the RECs and the AU?

06 Mar 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus, Trudi Hartzenberg
Since the 1980s, the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) have been identified as a key element in African regional integration.[1] This approach continues in the context of the African Co...read more

Coping with Covid after the AfCFTA has been launched

06 Mar 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
The COVID-19 Pandemic was a massive shock to the world, how it trades, and how it is governed. It arrived in a world of sovereign states, albeit that some of them (such as the European Uni...read more

The meaning of building blocks for African integration is defined by the applicable legal instruments and subsequent practice

06 Mar 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus, Trudi Hartzenberg
The Regional Economic Communities (RECs) have a long history within the narrative of African political cooperation and economic integration. They are now also referred to as the building b...read more

Should the Russian invasion of Ukraine be a concern for Africa?

02 Mar 2022 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is an unprovoked act of aggression and producing a humanitarian catastrophe. It has caused the biggest international crisis since the end of the Cold War. U...read more
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