Note 11-20 to:
Graumans, Anne
The European Union - South Africa negotiations: the sting is in the tail. - Amsterdam: Netherlands institute for Southern Africa, 1998 (July). - (NiZA occasional papers; No. 1)
11 Products in these protocols are: textiles, cars, television assembly and parts, mineral oils and fuels (e.g. oil produced from coal), footwear, small arms and ammunition, dairy products, winter grains (barley, wheat), beef and veal, sugarclose window
12 Recently, the planned negotiations for an FTA with the Mercosur grouping in South America was called off. France, Germany and the Netherlands were not willing to include the agricultural sector in the negotiations, while it is clear that Mercosur cannot accept an FTA excluding viable exports as beef, wheat and sugar (NRC Handelsblad, 18 July 1998).close window
13 Actually, the establishment of the WTO comes forth out of the recognised need to have a dispute resolution mechanism regarding trade issues. Especially the United States advocated the idea of a new multilateral institute, e.g. the WTOclose window
14 Within the ACP-EU Joint Assembly, the SACU parliamentary group requested for an impact study regarding the bilateral EU-South Africa FTA. A study was subsequently commissioned and presented in July 1997.close window
15 The Sugar Protocol was annexed to the Lomé Convention in 1975 and is thus not an integral part of it. This also means that it is not subject to renegotiations.close window
16 However, classification in the WTO is by self-selection, and thus it is for South Africa to choose what category of country it falls under. The current classification dates back to 1945.close window
17 An Inzet study conducted on the WTO concluded that the LLDC initiative is far from being realised. The current EU and USA offer excludes sensitive products in their respective agricultural and textiles and clothing sectors. Furthermore, the study notes that 56 out of 97 developing country members do not participate effectively in the WTO (Inzet, 1998).close window
18 Mr Malik from the UK government rightfully noted at a recent ACTSA seminar that six out of fourteen SADC member states are negotiating with four different regional organisations. Furthermore there is dual membership between the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and SADC (and SACU). Organisations, which might differ in focus but has tariff liberalisation as their main focus.close window
19 Cassim argues in this respect that the apartheid government would probably have entered an FTA with the EU, even if the economic benefits would be nil (Cassim, 1998).close window
20 General economic theory furthermore suggests that where market integration occurs between countries with economies of radically different levels of development and size, the benefits tend to accrue to the more developed party (Wellmer, 1998).
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