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Mis-invoicing in trade is a massive problem in South Africa, and elsewhere in Africa. Trade mis-invoicing occurs when companies or individuals falsify the prices of goods on import...

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) was signed by 44 AU member states in 2018 and came into force in May 2019 after being ratified by 22 member states – the req...

On 25 March 2019, the United States Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) issued a notice through the Federal Register on its annual Generalized System of Prefere...

The services sector is key to economic development because it contributes a significant share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment and trade in a country’s economy, regard...

The outcome document of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) recognises young people as a group left behind. The principle of leaving no one behind, a key principle of the SDGs...

This Working Paper provides some policy options confronting members of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the Common Monetary Area (CMA) arrangements, which are closely ...

Since the adoption by the African Union (AU) Assembly of the texts of the founding agreement of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the Protocol on Trade in Goods,...

China is the most important individual trade partner for African countries. As a grouping, the EU member states are the most important destination and source region for African exp...

Brexit is not easily tamed. Despite the firm promises of Mr. Boris Johnson that the United Kingdom (UK) would leave the European Union (EU) on 31 October 2019 “do or die”, this...

The AfCFTA has been designed to comply with the typical multilateral rules applicable to an FTA covering trade in goods and service. They include Article XXIV of the General Agreem...

It has been promised that continent-wide trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will commence on 1 July 2020. This will require the completion of difficult ou...

This trade brief applies several unsupervised statistical learning methodologies to determine the extent to which the nations of Africa converge (or diverge) in terms of their expo...

This trade brief applies several unsupervised statistical learning methodologies to determine the extent to which the nations of Africa converge (or diverge) in terms of their non-...

There have been prominent statements this year suggesting that skills immigration is high on the Ramaphosa government’s agenda. However, behind the headlines, matters are less th...

The elimination of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) is identified as one of the main objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The AfCFTA legal instruments – the ...

Boris Johnson became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK) on 24 July 2019 and changed the narrative on Brexit. He wants to renegotiate the withdrawal deal agreed by his predec...

The standard procedure for concluding multilateral (as opposed to bilateral) International Agreements is that the texts are negotiated, adopted, signed and ratified by the required...

When the Protocol on Trade in Services of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) enters into force (which is expected to happen in the not too distant future), an importa...

The cost of trade is mainly associated with tariffs and non-tariff costs. Although there are many reasons why these costs are high, minimising trade costs is to the benefit of impo...

Missing data and inaccuracies have meant that significant gaps in the trade data for unspecified commodities and trade with unspecified partners exist in many African countries. Wh...