PUBLICATIONS

Trade policy is one of many tools for improving productivity, increasing competitiveness and promoting long-term economic development. It is about far more than tariff negotiations. Similarly, SADC is about much more than implementing and extending the Trade Protocol. Great progress has been made; but much more could be done, in a much broader range of areas, to achieve more meaningful and productive economic integration—globally and in the region. Despite substantial reform at the Member State and SADC-wide levels, trade remains costly and continues to be hampered by well-intended initiatives whose unintended negative consequences for the region's development are insufficiently appreciated.

Increases in global trade coupled with advancements in technology pose multiple challenges and will continue to pose more serious challenges to customs authorities and other agencies involved in the movement of international trade. This trend is expected to grow in leaps and bounds over time. It is with this in mind that the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the Development and Management of the Trans Kalahari Corridor (TKC) together with instruments such as the World Customs Organization (WCO) Revised Kyoto Convention and Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade emphasize measures to reduce risks associated with international trade and promote the efficient and effective utilization of limited resources.

As part of the ongoing effort to modernize customs throughout eastern and southern Africa, a need was identified to introduce Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions. These solutions are aimed at streamlining cumbersome customs and trade facilitation procedures thereby reducing delays in cargo clearance and transit times while working towards a paperless, communicating, fully accountable and reportable trading environment.

Governments are looking more and more towards Independent Power Producers (IPPs), or combinations of IPPs and state owned utilities, to meet the demand for new electricity generation. In South Africa, for example, Government policy dictates that 30% of all new generation capacity must come from Independent Power Producers. In Botswana, a big IPP Project is being planned, aiming to sell the majority of its power to Eskom.

The objective of the mission was to asses the extent of and future plans for the power sector infrastructure development in Angola, particularly the generation and transmission infrastructure, looking at the extent to which the installed capacity meets the demand, the existing internal national grid and the possibilities to extend the grid into neighbouring SADC Member States. On the basis of the findings, to then come up with proposals for immediate, short term, medium term and probably long term measures to accelerate the connection of national electricity grid of Angola to the rest of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) Grid.

Investment policy is derived from a government’s overall philosophical approach to economic development and the objectives it sets for itself in putting in place a series of beliefs or aspirations or objectives that will be the defining cornerstone of future activity in the investment area. By providing a clear and definitive understanding of the government‘s approach to development, the private sector is provided with a guarantee that it will be supported by government policy in its role in creating employment, raising national income and generating wealth.

The paper discusses how an appropriate response by regulators can support the potential for innovative products to improve access to finance, and argues that regulators need to respond to new products and business models with a response that does not inhibit innovation and is appropriately calibrated to risk.

This paper seeks to provide an overview of the South African private sector’s perspectives on priorities to be discussed under the TIDCA. The paper begins by giving an analysis of the TIDCA and then considers South African private sector perspectives of the nature and usefulness of the TIDCA in the second section. It also highlights some of the key regulatory challenges South African private sector faces in conducting business with the US and what the South African government could do to mitigate these challenges.

This guide is intended to cover all aspects of the SADC Protocol on Trade that businesses must understand in order to trade better with each other under the terms of the agreement.