The annual Cape Times special feature on Exports, Imports and International Trade was published this week. The feature aims to provide business with a snapshot as to where current issues and debates are at with regards to international trade. Hilton Lambert was invited to provide an editorial commentary with regard to agribusiness and food trade. We placed ourselves in the …

The Trade Knowledge Network (TKN) is a global collaboration of research institutions across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas working on issues of trade, investment and sustainable development. Coordinated by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the TKN links network members, strengthens capacity in areas of research, training and policy analysis, and also generates new research to assess and …

The Australian government has taken a landmark stance that national health trumps the future of cigarette marketing as a branded product. Australia’s intention is to make all cigarette packaging drab and uniform in colour with standardized labelling requirements. Cigarette exporters are nervous and two countries, Honduras and Ukraine have filed disputes in the WTO over the new Australian legislation. Australia …

Addressing Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary Disputes through the mechanisms provided for under the IOE and the IPPC The principle that WTO Members are allowed to take measures to afford protection to human, animal and plant life and health is well established. Both the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, 1947) as well as the WTO Agreement on the application of …

South African ‘port’ and South African ‘sherry’ are illegal on liquor store shelves as of 2012. The reason of this regrettable state of affairs is that the naming provisions of the Wine and Spirits Agreement (as part of the Trade Development & Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) between the European Community (EC) and South Africa) takes final effect in denying South Africa …

Harking to the bygone era of Cecil Rhodes and the more recent (now ex-) Gaddafi notions of a United States of Africa; the 18TH Summit of the African Union (AU) held this past week has decided to establish a continent wide free trade area by 2017. The trade block will be known as ‘The Continental Free Trade Area’ (CFTA). The …

Businesses operating in South Africa have to be able to ensure the efficient and effective recall of unsafe consumer products from their clients and within their supply chains. This is a new requirement which stems from the Consumer Protection Act No. 68 of 2008. Guidelines for business (‘suppliers’) have been published and are open for comment until the end of …

South Africa is now a member of the BRICS countries and yet so many organisations, heads of sectors and industry are yet to grasp the economic relationships that this new partnership brings. South Africa has become a gateway to the African continent for the original BRICS economies. South Africa’s inclusion signifies an important evolution of BRICS into an alliance spanning …

The World Trade Organization (WTO) will be holding its 8th Ministerial Conference in Geneva this week. The meeting is likely to be lacklustre, tailing out on several months of bemusement as to what the meeting should actually do, and what, in the context of the long-suffering Doha Round of trade negotiations, it can achieve. None the less international negotiations can …

Demands placed on producers and exporters of South African wines to export their produce in bulk raises several policy considerations. We will touch on some of these. Environmental considerations The purported aim of these demands is to reduce the carbon impact of wine imported to address climate change. Wine imported in bulk is then supposed to be bottled in the …