ISDS Case Map
SADC
Southern Africa Development Cooperation
The long-awaited free trade area (FTA) for southern Africa will be launched on August 17 during the annual summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The ongoing Doha round of World Trade Organisation talks is seen to be undermining regional integration and economic development efforts by African countries, analysts have noted.
Business chambers from southern Africa believe that talk of a single Southern African Development Community (SADC) Customs Union - that would replace the Southern African Customs Unions (SACU) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) - is premature until a SADC Free Trade Area (FTA) is fully in place.
The launch of a SADC Free Trade Area in August this year will usher in a new era of economic integration with an enlarged market of more than 200 million people.
Southern African Development Community (SADC) is on course to achieving a free trade area by August 1 this year, the regional bloc's trade adviser, Paul Kalenga has said.
To thwart a deepening food crisis on the continent, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation is proposing the creation of a Free Trade Area (FTA) for Africa that will facilitate a seamless flow of strategic commodities across national borders while maintaining high profit margins.
As a result of the free trade agreements with the European Union, called economic partnership agreements, regional integration in Southern Africa is in tatters. The question arises: what kind of integration would engender broad-based development?
The Southern African Development Community countries need assistance and cooperation from the European Union to overcome development challenges in the spirit of partnership, said Speaker of the National Assembly, Theo-Ben Gurirab, at the first regional ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in the southern African region.
Short-term benefits brought by Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) should not stand in the way of long term prosperity and integration of the SADC region, says South Africas High Commissioner to Botswana, Mr Dikgang Moopeloa.
Southern African Development Community (SADC) chairperson, Levy Mwanawasa, has said member states and some international cooperating partners are dissatisfied with the SADC secretariat's lack of capacity to absorb financial aid meant to help the regional body achieve its goals.
