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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Regional arrangements and the World Trade Organisation (WTO): the case of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
Author:Thomas, R.H.
Year:1996
Periodical:Annual conference - African Society of International and Comparative Law
Volume:8
Pages:57-102
Language:English
Geographic term:Southern Africa
Subjects:WTO
SADC
trade policy
trade negotiations
Abstract:The SADC Protocol on Trade and Development, adopted in 1996, envisages the establishment of a free trade area in the SADC region in eight years. This attempt at regionalism must be examined against developments in the global economy, the fundamental changes to the GATT trading regime and the creation of a new World Trade Organization (WTO) to police trade diplomacy. At the same time a number of important events which have a bearing on the SADC Trade Protocol are occurring within the SADC region itself. These include bilateral negotiations between several SADC member States for the conclusion of preferential trade agreements; negotiations between South Africa and the EU for a free trade agreement; and the negotiations for the reconstitution and democratization of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). The fact that many of the SADC members are party to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) further confuses the SADC agenda, while the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) which several SADC member States have individually undertaken give rise to a type of 'open regionalism' which tends to undermine southern Africa's strategies for integration. In fact, the developing countries in the SADC region, other than South Africa, have, in their celerity to develop a trade regime, failed to give sufficient consideration to an agreement appropriate for their needs. Notes, ref.
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