Confirming the European Union stance put forward by the Commission in December 2006, the EU Council of Ministers this week adopted a decision to officially include South Africa in the SADC EPA negotiation configuration. South Africa was previously an observer of the process due to its pre-existing Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) with Europe. While this is a positive …

Canada has opened the 2007 bidding at the WTO by requesting consultations with the United States under the dispute settlement understanding on subsidies to US maize farmers. Canada is unhappy about both the domestic (Amber Box) payments and export payments that the US grants to its producers. Canada contends that US agricultural subsidy programs are causing serious economic problems to …

The New Year has started with positive news for the WTO. The Membership of the Organization has finally reached the 150 country mark with the official admission of Vietnam in January 2007. This follows on Vietnam having domestically ratified the terms of accession accepted by the WTO on 7 November 2006. Accession is the term used to describe the process …

Last week the EU provided its first official response to the South African/SADC proposal, put forward in June 2006, that South Africa become part of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations presently ongoing within the SADC EPA configuration.It seems that the EU is positive that South Africa be included in the SADC EPA with certain seemingly small, but serious reservations. …

The first real insights into the direction in which the Doha Round process will move forward will likely evolve this month. Firstly, the G20 coalition will meet in Brasilia from 9 September, and the Cairns Group will hold its 20th Anniversary meeting in Cairns Australia from 20 September 2006. Recall that these alliances represent reformist/development-reformist stances on trade. South Africa …

Last month hailed very encouraging news for South Africa in the appointment of Professor David Unterhalter, Professor of Law at the University of Witwatersrand and practicing advocate, to the WTO’s Appellate Body. The Appellate Body is the pinnacle of the legal process in the WTO and an Appellate Body appointment is probably the premium accolade for any trade lawyer. The …

The WTO’s General Council officially suspended the Doha negotiations on 27 July 2006 with no indication as to when the talks will resume, giving rise to some considered opinion that the talks may be extended by up to 4 years over the intended end date of December 2006. In the creation of this negotiating impasse, Africa has seemed generally ‘shy’ …

As part of a recent assignment we examined African participation at the international standards setting bodies related to the WTO, being the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and the International Organization for Epizootics (OiE). We found African participation to be relatively limited especially in the scientific committees of these bodies. We noted that it is critical …

The WTO draft agriculture and goods modalities texts came out late today. The agriculture chair Crawford Falconer was visibly frustrated by the lack of willingness of countries to take the bait of the compromises that he was subtly introducing in the sessions held at the WTO over the past 10 days. In his introduction to the modes for further agricultural …

In March this year the free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations between the United States and South Africa (with its SA Customs Union Partners) essentially collapsed. There were two main reasons for this. Firstly SACU is not yet structurally able to take joint negotiating positions outside of tariffs in goods and agriculture because the SACU treaty is restricted to this competence. …