One Size Doesn't Fit All: Deal-Breaker Issues in the Failed US-SACU Free Trade Negotiations
Owing to divergence in views between the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the United States of America (US), the realisation of a free trade agreement (FTA) is now a longer-term goal than was intended when the negotiations were launched in 2003. The parties decided to lower the ambition from that of immediately attaining a comprehensive agreement to that of initially establishing a Trade and Investment Cooperation Agreement (TICA) when it became clear that a FTA could not be reached before the expiry of the US Trade Promotion Authority in 2007.
This book is part of efforts to raise awareness in the South African business community of the possibilities for compromise and the importance to their own interests of the issues at stake in an FTA negotiation. It seeks to assist negotiators and other critical stakeholders on both sides beyond government - especially the Southern African and American business communities that stands to benefit from the opportunities created by a successful agreement - to become active participants in both the TICA and the eventual FTA negotiating process.
To that end, and with the comprehensive FTA in mind, the book sheds some invaluable research-based insights into what SACU and the US can realistically achieve on thorny ‘new generation' negotiating issues such as investment; services; and intellectual property. It also examines the perspectives of South African business people as to the potential threats and opportunities an FTA would pose to their firms.
Edited by Peter Draper and Nkululeko Khumalo
ISBN: 1-919969-02-2
188 pages
Price: R120.00
