ISDS Case Map
South Africa
The planned creation of a 26-nation African Tripartite Free Trade Area (FTA) will draw industrial investment to South Africa by making it a springboard for low-duty access to other parts of the continent, trade and industry director general Lionel October said on Monday.
On Sunday, heads of state and government from Africa’s three main regional blocs – the Southern African Development Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community – will meet in South Africa to launch negotiations for a Tripartite Free Trade Area (T-FTA).
Before mid-year South Africa would host the next summit on the establishment of a Trilateral Free Trade Agreement (T-FTA) among the regional economic groupings of the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
South Africa is considering bilateral trade agreements with Japan, Turkey and New Zealand, but a preferential trade agreement with India, currently under negotiation, is enjoying priority, said Brendan Vickers, a chief director at the department of trade and industry.
Negotiations for a tripartite free trade area (FTA), which would include 26 East and Southern African member states, were expected to begin by mid-year, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said on Tuesday.
South Africa is pushing ahead to secure a free trade agreement between the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for East African States (Comesa).
The government has thrown its weight behind the South African sugar industry’s demand for preferential access to European markets. If granted, this would put SA on an equal sugar-trade footing with other sugar producing developing economies — the African-Pacific-Caribbean countries and the world’s least developed countries — for the first time since the industry lost its access under apartheid.
South Africa is likely to conclude an economic partnership agreement by the end of this year with the European Union as a member of the Southern African Customs Union, International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said yesterday.
The beleaguered Southern African Customs Union (SACU) has to face up to serious challenges at its upcoming heads of state meeting in October.
South Africa's black business people are battling to benefit from the numerous bilateral agreements the country has entered into, National Empowerment Fund CEO Philisiwe Buthulezi said on Thursday
