Alan Peat
THERE SHOULD be an SA-Australia bi-lateral trade agreement in place within the next three years, according to David Hallett, deputy high commissioner in the Australian Embassy.
At the moment, the concept is being discussed at Minister of Trade & Industry level, he told FTW in an exclusive interview, and he expected the detailed negotiations to take at least a year to get underway.
But, he said, probable finalisation in two to three years.
This, Hallett felt, is the logical onward step from the latest firming of trade relations between the two countries.
The respective Ministers of T&I have just signed a statement of intent - an agreement designed to strengthen trade co-operation, according to Hallett.
This, he told FTW, has come out of a series of meetings between the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) and its Australian equivalent, the CSIRO, which provides for the two countries to exchange technology. These are particularly focused at joint projects in agriculture and mineral exploration, two special strengths in each country's science and technology armouries.
But, said Hallett, the CSIR/CSIRO agreement needed an underlying treaty, so that the procedures could be financed by the SA government. This is what the ministers' agreement provided. We are much less rigid about such an arrangement.
Next in the pipeline, Hallett told FTW, will be an investment protection and promotion agreement specifically aimed at promoting SA to the Australian business community as a good place to do business, he said. This intended to add the government's support to overcoming certain general perceptions that southern Africa - obviously including SA - is a risky place to do business. An attitude, he added, heightened by recent events such as the Zimbabwe crisis.
This type of agreement, Hallett said, is designed to increase investor confidence in a market. It's a political gesture to re-assure investors.
The final step, he added, is that free trade pact.
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