ISDS Case Map
South Africa
The South African Minister of Trade and Industry, Mandisi Mpahlwa, has called for more regional trade cooperations among African states.
The United States and Southern African nations are unlikely to clinch a free trade agreement but will continue talks at a lower level, South Africa's trade minister said.
Washington has invited African trade and finance ministers for talks on the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) - the US partial free trade regime for imports from Africa.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has warned government that thousands of textile workers, especially women, will soon join the unemployment queue.
The proposed free-trade agreement with China is intended to better position South African business to gain access to China's economy. But will it?
South Africa has urged the United States to be more flexible in negotiations towards a free-trade pact with southern Africa, warning that current talks may fail to secure a deal.
Although India, Brazil, and South Africa share bilateral trade agreements amongst themselves, binding trilateral free trade arrangements between the countries are not an option at the present time because of previously signed multinational agreements involving their neighboring nations.
India announced that it is evolving an agreement in maritime shipping within IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) and working out modalities to implement the framework agreement in civil aviation in the region. It cautioned, however, that since Brazil and South Africa were members of MERCOSUR and SACU, there were constraints in working out a trilateral FTA within the IBSA framework.
China is muscling its way not only into the global economy but also into Africa, a world that SA companies might have thought was their oyster after the walls of apartheid came down a decade ago.
The government should stop procrastinating over the implementation of an international agreement which would protect South African property rights in Zimbabwe - now that Harare planned to nationalise mines, says the official opposition.
