What strategies should South Africa pursue in negotiating trade agreements? South Africa is a rapidly developing state especially in comparison with her other African counterparts. Trading with the likes of The European Union, China and The United States reinforces the fact that she utilizes multilateralism as a primary means of trade. The state’s minister of Trade and Industry remarks that South Africa is a strong proponent of multilateralism. This is a fundamental principle of our foreign policy and central to our trade policy. In our view, multilateralism is the necessary intergovernmental response to globalization and interdependence. South Africa has with others, actively pursued a policy of working to reform multilateral institutions to ensure that developing countries are able to play a more decisive role in defining priorities for effective global economic governanceDuring the last decade, trade policy in South Africa has undergone several changes. These include multilateral reductions in tariffs and subsidies in line with the country’s WTO commitments, the signing of two significant FTAs and, more recently, several negotiations around future commitments to liberalization at both the multilateral level and regional levels. These simultaneous developments have had an important influence on both de facto protections and welfare. Notwithstanding the importance of multilateral reforms, regional and bilateral trade arrangements have, to a large extent defined trade policy in the new democratic era. The two main types of agreements on the table were FTAs with the European Union (EU) and with the Southern African Development Community (SADC). These agreements, however, did not have a significant impact during the 1990s and onl... ... middle of paper ... ... and the key lies in unlocking growth and development in developing countries.’ Perhaps an interesting question to ask is how South Africa’s democratic trade negotiation approaches have changed in the last decade, and especially in relation to trade agreements at the multilateral and regional levels. In the initial stages when the ANC government came into power, policy makers were driven purely by mercantilist considerations. Their desideratum was non-reciprocal access to global markets and more effort was spent on securing market access with less recognition given to unilateral reform. Moreover, the importance of regionalism as a limited form of liberalization was seen as quite important, particularly because it could be more systematically linked to greater ‘development considerations’ and more far-reaching market access, especially to the EU (Ismail et al, 2002).
The documents of the slave trade case study contains documents, which were authored by individuals closely connected to the slave trade. Gomes Eannes de Azurara was a Portuguese chronicler who provided details about the early voyages on the west coast of Africa and the capture of Africans in the slave trade. The primary source that Azurara wrote was titled The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea written in 1450. The second primary source titled Practices and Contracts of Merchants was written by Fray Tomas De Mercado in 1587. The third primary source, The Travailes of an English Man, was written by Job Hortop in 1567. These primary sources aid in exemplifying how
From the seventh to fifteenth centuries, Africa rightfully claimed its name as the most powerful continent. Globetrotters from all over the world were captivated by Africa’s possession of rich resources such as gold and ivory. African leaders and emperors realized this attraction and the profit that could be assumed from “sharing” their secret resources. Considering this, they set up Sub-Saharan trading operations. According to Michael Gomez, these trading posts posed as “global crossroad[s] for various populations and cultures”. Trading operations proved extremely beneficial to African kingdoms because Africa gained prized resources that were not as widely present (such as salt), Islamic culture and religion was spread (promoting governmental
The Atlantic Slave Trade was one of, if not the largest scale movements of human beings from one part of the world to another by sea and could have been considered a mobile killing machine because of the horrible conditions. The numbers were so large that the slaves who came by slave trade were the most Old-World immigrants in the world. Even though there were only races of people enslaved during the Atlantic Slave Trade, African Americans were the most numerous. Records show 34,941 voyages during the time of the slave trade. The Transatlantic Slave Trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean in the 16th century and lasted till the 19th centuries. The way that the Atlantic Slave Trade came about was cruel but not unthinkable. The capture and enslavement of African Americans was inevitable, the only question was when. A lot more slaves were taken to the South America than to the North America because the South “needed” them more. The South Atlantic economic system was based on producing crops, making goods and other things to sell. The enslaved people didn’t just skip into the ship with smiles on their faces. The Spanish colonists asked the King of Spain for permission to bring slaves to The New World to provide for them. Spanish Colonists were currently forcing Native Americans to do their labor for them but they were dying in large numbers because of diseases and lack of care from the colonists. The King of Spain gave approval to the colonists to import Africans and from then on Africans were transported there for use and labor and other needs of the Spanish colonists. During this time many African American slaves were transported. An estimated twelve to fifteen million African Americans were shipped throughout the world includ...
Since the beginning of slavery in the America, Africans have been deemed inferior to the whites whom exploited the Atlantic slave trade. Africans were exported and shipped in droves to the Americas for the sole purpose of enriching the lives of other races with slave labor. These Africans were sold like livestock and forced into a life of servitude once they became the “property” of others. As the United States expanded westward, the desire to cultivate new land increased the need for more slaves. The treatment of slaves was dependent upon the region because different crops required differing needs for cultivation. Slaves in the Cotton South, concluded traveler Frederick Law Olmsted, worked “much harder and more unremittingly” than those in the tobacco regions.1 Since the birth of America and throughout its expansion, African Americans have been fighting an uphill battle to achieve freedom and some semblance of equality. While African Americans were confronted with their inferior status during the domestic slave trade, when performing their tasks, and even after they were set free, they still made great strides in their quest for equality during the nineteenth century.
Oman, C. (1994). Globalisation and regionalisation: the challenge for developing countries. Paris: Development Centre studies.
Slavery has been a part of human history since the beginning of time. It predates any known written records of Ancient civilization. The oldest civilizations know to enforce and allow slavers are, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient China, along with a few less old ones, The Roman Empire and the American Colonies to name a few.
It is thought-provoking, in the sense that Africa’s need for foreign created a race to the bottom, much like what Pietra Rivoli described in The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy. Due to some African states’ reliance on foreign aid in order to mine and profit on their resources, they allow business standards to be lowered and for Chinese firms to tip the contracts moresoever in the favor of Chinese firms. This lowers the potential earnings of African states by lowering royalty rates, for example. Additionally, Burgis’ research was thorough and transparent. When he did not receive a response or if his questions were dodged, he made it obvious to the readers. Sure, some could view this book as too anecdotal to be used as a credible source of Africa’s situation. However, this is due to the nature of the system Burgis is writing about; after all, they are shadow states for a reason. Some readers will be saddened by this text, others angry, most curious to learn more, but above all, everyone will be intellectually stimulated and
The British Empire was a largely economy-run country. They wanted control of everything from bananas in the Caribbean to diamonds and gold in Africa. This in turn left a devastating effect on how the government in some of these regions was set up. One of these countries was the country of South Africa. The main influence of European Imperialism began with the settling of the Dutch, who combined with some of the native population and became farmers. They enslaved the natives and had slaves shipped to them. This was mostly near the Cape and edge of South Africa, so they avoided conflict with any other tribes in the area. Most of them were migratory and had large families. Because of this the government did nothing to stop them from expanding.
West Africa was greatly impacted by the Atlantic Slave Trade. Though there were countless negative effects, some short-term positive effects did occur. First off, the slave trade directly correlated with the number of wars in Africa. As demand for slaves increased, so did the quantity of wars to capture them. African kingdoms would wage war and go on raids in order to supply prisoners of war to sell. This was a start of a domino effect, in which kingdoms and tribes would capture slaves, trade them for guns to become more powerful, and then use said power to enslave even more people. A vicious cycle was created in Africa as a result of the slave trade. In spite of these negative effects, it is arguable that it was slightly beneficial for a
The political force moved away from the painstakingly and time-consuming technique of multilateral tariff negotiations to smaller regional and bilateral provisions - the Regional Trade Agreement. In these arrangements; members accord preferential treatment , basically agreeing to liberalize the exchange of goods and services amongst each another giving regard to certain trade barriers. RTA is not the first-hand way of trade liberalization though. Initially, when multilateral trade discussions used to happen, two-sided and multiparty FTA”s filled the vacuum. There were restrictions from stringent and premeditated trade arrangements earlier, thus a lot of states are now moving towards freer trade for their own benefits.
"Unfair trade rules increase African poverty." Daily Telegraph [London, England] 21 Apr. 2005. Global Issues In Context. Web. 12 May 2014.
Over the past 30 years the globalisation of the economy led by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and transnational entities have happened at a very quick pace. These institutions have pressured governments of developing countries such as South Africa to remove barriers to the cross-border flow of capital and products.
...tries. These ideas were discussed in lecture on February 16th, 2011, as well as explored in Manfred B. Steger's, Globalization: A Very Short Introduction, and I.B. Logan and Kidane Mengisteab's article, "IMF – World Bank Adjustment and Structural Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa." Instead of globalization as a positive system for SSA, it did the opposite, and made the region stagnant in economic terms. It was about expanding relationships among countries, but adjustments were creating barriers that prevented SSA from economic communications with other countries. Therefore, it contributed to colonialism after World War II; colonial powers were able to indirectly control what SSA could do, and whom they were able to contact. The World Bank as a financial institution affected SSA's economic industry, and was partly responsible for the control colonial powers had.
The case for regional integration is both simple and irrefutable. First we are small and we need to achieve economies of scale. We need to achieve such economies in markets, production, the mobilisation of regional capital for regional use, university education, science and technology, sea and air transport to mention some areas.
Gold mining in South Africa has a large impact on the environment, the economy and social structure in South Africa. The environmental impact of gold mining on the environment includes water, air and noise pollution. The mining industry in South Africa is one of the largest in the world. It provides jobs for hundreds of thousands of people in the mining industry alone. The mining industry also indirectly provides jobs for about 400 000 with the goods and services that the mines require to run successfully.