Blog

Where does the AfCFTA Process stand and what happens next?

23 Jan 2019 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
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)

23 Jan 2019 ~ Talkmore Chidede
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

18 Jan 2019 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
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

14 Dec 2018 ~ Paulina M. Elago
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?

14 Dec 2018 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
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

14 Dec 2018 ~ Talkmore Chidede
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)

14 Dec 2018 ~ Talkmore Chidede
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

14 Dec 2018 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
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

14 Dec 2018 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
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

11 Dec 2018 ~ Gavin van der Nest
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?

11 Dec 2018 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
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

11 Dec 2018 ~ Talkmore Chidede
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?

27 Nov 2018 ~ John Stuart
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

Termination of the South Africa-Zimbabwe bilateral trade agreement: What does it mean for South Africa-Zimbabwe trade?

20 Nov 2018 ~ Elisha Tshuma
The Bilateral Trade Agreement between South Africa and Zimbabwe will be terminated on 20 November 2018. The termination of the Agreement will affect certain imports from South Africa ...read more

Regional Integration as a building block for the Multilateral Trading System

18 Nov 2018 ~ Edwini Kessie
The signing of the Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) by African countries earlier this year was a momentous decision which could potentially alter the economic growth trajectory of...read more

Assuring Continuation of Effective WTO Dispute Settlement

18 Nov 2018 ~ Alan Wolff
Until the past few years, for many there was widespread complacency over the existence and state of the liberal world trading system. If progress was needed that could not be achieved at t...read more

WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement: An African perspective

18 Nov 2018 ~ Talkmore Chidede
Trade facilitation discussions at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) began in December 1996, at the Singapore Ministerial Conference, when the member states instructed the WTO Council for ...read more

Is it time for a new Global Order?

18 Nov 2018 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
The policies of President Trump have brought a new urgency to the debate about the future of the global economic and geopolitical order. American tariffs on Chinese goods[1], the withdrawa...read more

Modernisation of the multilateral trading system – WTO reforms

18 Nov 2018 ~ Talkmore Chidede
The multilateral trading system and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are today under threat. The system is being shaken by increasing protectionism and the imposition of non-tariff barri...read more

African Responses to Global Crises

18 Nov 2018 ~ Gerhard Erasmus
How do African governments and Africa collectively respond to the crisis in the global trading system? Are joint policies being developed? By whom? How will such a process be coordinated a...read more