Book by the South Centre, 2019
The Politics of Trade in the Era of Hyperglobalisation: A Southern African Perspective
About the Book:
Matters of international trade are increasingly widely recognised as major shapers of global politics. News bulletins are giving more and more coverage to matters like the so-called “trade wars” between the United States and China. These are, indeed, increasingly defining relations between the two largest economies in the world and could well underpin a multi-dimensional rivalry that could be a central feature of international relations for many years to come. Brexit is dominating and indeed re-shaping politics in the United Kingdom. By definition a rejection of a regional integration arrangement, Brexit has also revealed under-currents profoundly shaped by the outcome of a broader trade-driven process called “globalisation”. Just as regional integration is weakening in Europe, African countries have taken decisions that could lead to the most profound and ambitious step forward in African regional integration – the establishment of an African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). This study seeks to present an analysis of the political economy of trade negotiations over the past quarter century on two main fronts: the multi-lateral and those pertaining to regional integration on the African continent.
Author: Rob Davies is former South African Minister of Trade and Industry.
This article was tagged: Africa, African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), African Union (AU), Agriculture, Appellate Body, China, Commodities, Customs Union, Digital Economy, Digital Industrialization, Digital Trade, Doha Development Round, Domestic Regulation, E-commerce, Economic Crisis, Exports, Financial Crisis, Financialization, Fisheries Subsidies, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), GATS, GATT, Globalization, Industrial Policy, Industrialization, Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Market Access, Ministerial Conference, Multilateralism, Neoliberalism, Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA), Plurilaterals, Public Stockholding, Regional Cooperation, Regional Integration, Rules of Origin, Services, Singapore Issues, South Africa, Southern African Development Community (SADC), Special and Differential Treatment, Standards, Subsidies, Tariffs, Trade, Trade Facilitation, Trade for Development, Trade Liberalization, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), TRIMS, TRIPS, Trump, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Value Chain, World Trade Organization (WTO), WTO, WTO Reform
