Blog

President Ramaphosa’s 2019 State of the Nation Address

A State of the Nation Address (SONA) is not like a formal contract, especially not in an election year. It cannot be “enforced”. But the one delivered by President Ramaphosa on 7 Febru... read more

How will South Africa engage the Region, the Continent and the World?

In the African context, South Africa is a trading nation. What does the State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2019 say about South Africa’s trade policy? President Ramaphosa emphasised the ... read more

Good Governance is vital… but is easier said than done once the State has been captured

Those who observe South Africa from afar are often puzzled by the fact that despite all the evidence, not a single person has yet been prosecuted and convicted for a crime associated with ... read more

The Energy Crisis: How will Investors look at South Africa now?

South Africa has traditionally been associated with Africa’s best infrastructure, giving it an obvious advantage in terms of attracting investment and boosting further industrialization.... read more

How Can Blockchain Support Intra-African Trade?

‘Blockchain’ – or Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) – is a technology whereby a ledger of transactions, or other form or record, is maintained electronically by being distributed... read more

Constitutional Court condemns South Africa’s role in demise of SADC Tribunal

In December 2018, the South African Constitutional Court ruled that the participation of the South African President in the decision to abolish the Southern African Development Community (... read more

Prospects for reforming/strengthening the WTO

Media coverage of the discussions at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos (which combined globalization issues with the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”) sketched a mixed and at time... read more

Where does the AfCFTA Process stand and what happens next?

African leaders held an Extraordinary Summit on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) from 17-21 March 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda, during which the Agreement establishing the AfCFTA... read more

Updates from the 7th African Ministers of Trade Meeting (12-13 December 2018)

African Union Ministers of Trade (AMOT) held their 7th meeting in Egypt from 12-13 December 2018. The AMOT is a meeting African Union member states’ ministers responsible for trade. The ... read more

Brexit after the Prime Minister’s Defeat

After a devastating defeat for Theresa May, the Brexit clock keeps ticking. On Tuesday 15 January, the House of Commons rejected her Bill on the Withdrawal Agreement with the European Unio... read more

SACU’s Trade Facilitation Programme: Talking Regional Customs Modernisation

Trade Facilitation in SACU Generally, the Trade Facilitation process intends to reduce impediments and bottlenecks in cross-border trade and thus promote a seamless movement of goods betw... read more

What is a Customs Union like SACU about?

From a legal and technical point of view the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is a Customs Union (CU) and an international organization with legal personality. Since a CU is an except... read more

Southern African Customs Union (SACU)’s trade and tariff profile

The members of SACU are Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia and South Africa. SACU’s objectives include to, inter alia, facilitate cross-border movement of goods between member sta... read more

Revenue sharing in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU)

All customs, excise and additional duties (trade taxes) collected in the SACU Common Customs Area are paid into the Common Revenue Pool and shared among member states. Member states’ sha... read more

The Process for Amending or Reviewing the SACU Agreement

There are strong indications that the SACU Agreement may be amended – or “reviewed” – during the next year.[1] Why has this become necessary and what would such a process entail? H... read more

SACU’s operational Challenge

What does the 2002 SACU Agreement promise in terms of how the Organization would function? What did the Member States subsequently do in order to ensure that the agreed formula would be im... read more

Reflections on COP24

The 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (COP24) is currently taking place in Katowice, Poland from 2-14 December 2018. COP24 is hosted under th... read more

The Buenos Aires G20 Meeting: Has Rules-based global Trade survived?

The communiqué issued at the end of the Group of 20 meeting in Buenos Aires recently (30 November and 1 December 2018) reads like the to-do list for the world’s leading countries. It al... read more

Investor-state dispute settlement in Africa and the AfCFTA Investment Protocol

African countries have frequently appeared as respondents before international arbitration tribunals for violating their investment treaty obligations, mostly provisions on expropriation. ... read more

Where to for Africa’s Silicon Valley?

Approximately a year ago, tralac published a working paper that overviewed South Africa’s software development industry cluster in the Western Cape Province[1]. The Western Cape Software... read more