Economic Diplomacy: Projects
REPORT: BRICS Economic Strategy Study Group
In the run-up to the BRICS Summit at the end of March 2012, the South African Institute of International Affairs and the International Development Law Unit at the University of Pretoria jointly hosted a study group on South Africa's approach to BRICS in support of the core economic priorities of the Government of South Africa. This was also an opportunity to analyse the value-add of BRICS membership to South Africa's economic priorities and to review the progress made so far since South Africa's admission to the group.
Private sector views of the implementation of the SADC FTA
Linkages and interaction between governments and the private sector is crucial for the success of not only regional trade agreement negotiations, but its implementation as well. The importance of the private sector in implementation is based on the fact that it is a beneficiary and partner for trade development. However, the private sector is often not sufficiently engaged by governments or regional economic communities (RECs) in implementation processes, especially in Africa. This is demonstrated by the perceptions of business on the effects of the implementation of the Southern African Development Cooperation's (SADC) Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The International Trade Centre produced a report called the "Private sector views of the implementation of the SADC FTA" to examine these issues.
Track 2 initiative among BRICS countries launched in Shanghai
“BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group of countries has a special significance in the emerging global economic order and they are set of reshape the economic, trade and political future of the world,” said Wang Xinkui, President of the Shanghai WTO Consultation Center. He was speaking on the occasion of the launch of BRICS Trade & Economics Research Network (BRICS-TERN) in Shanghai on Saturday, the 19th of November 2011. Gong Baihua, Associate President of SCCWTO welcomed the participants to this meeting.
Trade Policy Reform Project
Background And Objectives
Ideological posturing has made the debate around trade reform contentious in South Africa. The antagonism around the debate has prevented an open, evidence-based dialogue. However, trade policy reform forms part of the structural economic reform agenda in South Africa, as it has potential to offer significant positive impacts on economic performance and poverty. Critics regard South Africa’s trade reform of the early 1990s as a primary cause of the high rate of unemployment in the country; proponents argue that it brought about long overdue structural reforms which aided South Africa’s reintegration into the global economy. In South Africa’s current context of mediocre economic growth amidst high unemployment there is the potential of minds hardening against trade reform. Accordingly, this project seeks to promote debate in the broader public, especially the media, business, consumers, opposition political parties and people within the governing alliance, and empower these stakeholders to engage in and influence the debate on trade policy. It also aims to restore balance to the debate on the basis of evidence produced by research.
National Perspectives on Global Leadership: South Africa
This paper forms part of a series of papers prepared for GIGI's National Perspectives on Global Leadership project. Click here to read more.
Economic Interests
The South African economy is heading for its first recession since 1992, after 16 years of uninterrupted, albeit somewhat anemic, growth. Consequently, the first priority was to ensure that the short-term agenda outlined during the Washington Summit was adequately addressed, with appropriate measures taken in the major developed countries to underpin growth. Whilst no new fiscal measures were announced in London, and the US and continental Europeans were unwilling to coordinate their fiscal stimulus packages, enough was done prior to the crisis to ensure this was not a major issue for South Africa.
WTO Roundtables Series
There is widespread uncertainty about the how international trade talks in the Doha Round and beyond will pan out. In October 2005 the Development through Trade project launched a series of roundtables to assess various aspects of the Doha Round of WTO negotiations, and the future of the multilateral trading system. These roundtable discussions are premised on the understanding that key regional stakeholders are keenly aware of the Doha round negotiations and the need for particular positions to be properly informed through evidence-based research. This series addresses discrete topics within the Doha agenda and draws on high profile trade experts and practitioners to lead debates on selected issues. All our roundtables are attended by a range of opinion-setters from government, business and civil society groups in the region and receive extensive media coverage.Regional Integration
The Development through Trade Programme(DtT) is an authoritative source of policy input into trade strategy development processes and regional economic institutions, particularly with respect to international, regional, and bilateral trade negotiations and policies. Recent regional work has covered the prospects for deeper regional integration in eastern and southern Africa including, inter alia, how regional economic communities are likely to evolve in eastern and southern Africa against a background of overlapping memberships in SADC, SACU, COMESA, and EAC; and how the regional configurations arising from the Economic Partnership Agreements (with the EU) negotiations have created an additional layer of complexity.
South Africa's Balance of Payments, Trade Policy, and the Global Financial Crisis
In recent year's South Africa's current account deficit has ballooned to potentially alarming proportions, thrown into sharp relief by the current and escalating global financial crisis. The latter has the potential, over time, to change conventional wisdom regarding macroeconomic and trade policies, notably via amelioration of the prescriptive "one-size-fits-all" dimension of the so-called "Washington consensus". South Africa's ongoing political realignment and associated debates over whether ANC economic policies are "turning left" are therefore finding fertile terrain. Accordingly SAIIA's Development through Trade programme recently released a report on South Africa's current account deficit and associated trade policies, and asked whether proposed cures are worse than the disease? The pick of press coverage on the report was Engineering News incisive feature editorial.
Trade Knowledge Network
DtT coordinates a regional network of researchers under the banner of Trade Knowledge Network. The Trade Knowledge Network (TKN) is a global collaboration of research institutions across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas working on issues of trade and sustainable development. Coordinated by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the TKN links network members, strengthens capacity and generates new research to assess and address the impact of trade and investment policies on sustainable development.
