ISDS Case Map
SADC
Southern Africa Development Cooperation
The European Union needs to scale down its ambitions for accessing the service sector in southern Africa as it negotiates an economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the region, said South Africa's deputy trade minister Rob Davies.
The fate of the Meatco researcher, who got suspended for expressing a sceptical opinion on the EU-SADC Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations in May, is yet to be decided.
As the December deadline for the signing of a European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) member countries fast approaches without any sign of the deal being closed by then, European Union (EU) representatives in SA are growing frustrated and accuse Pretoria of procrastination over the negotiation.
Frustration is mounting in relations between the European Union and South Africa, in particular, in negotiations for an economic partnership agreement between the EU and the so-called Southern African Development Community group, comprising Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Tanzania and Mozambique.
With the partner states of the East African Community having agreed to negotiate an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe under one roof, Tanzania may be forced to count the cost of forgoing a relatively successful regional grouping in East Africa against political solidarity with Southern Africa's regional power base -- South Africa.
President Pakalitha Mosisili of Lesotho called on member states of SADC to address their obligations to ensure that the region realises the Free Trade Area by 2008 and a Customs Union by 2010, in preparation for the creation of a Common Market by 2015 and a common currency by 2018.
"When we try to negotiate as individual countries, we give the Europeans the ammunition to divide and discriminate against us", said Zimbabwe's Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity Bright Matonga.
What does the “grand debate” about a United States of Africa have to do with the fate of SA's provinces?
A top European Union official has been seeking to create divisions between South Africa and its neighbours in talks aimed at establishing a free trade deal, African diplomats have alleged.
