SOUTH AFRICA and the US are to embark on negotiations for a free trade pact similar to the one so arduously moulded after four years of talks with the European Union (EU).
This is confirmation of news that was privately leaked to FTW some time ago.
Alec Erwin, Minister of Trade and Industry, has asked his negotiating troops to once again gird their loins for a protracted period of talks, with hopes for the culmination of a free trade agreement between the two countries which might also include Canada and Mexico as the other two members of Nafta (North American Free Trade Association).
Five or six years is what the department is allowing for the talks, with the trade and investment framework recently signed by the two countries acting as the basic foundation from which the free trade pact will be constructed.
Erwin is also continuing the department's battle with the US trade authorities on what constitutes claimed contravention of the USA's trade interests in copyrights and international property rights.
And - in what is one of the penalties of SA having re-entered the rough-and-tumble of the international trade arena - the US, at the beginning of the month, threatened trade sanctions against SA if we fail to comply with certain international trade laws before the turn of the new millennium in 2000.
Erwin already has his fighting gloves on after a diplomatic punch-up with the US authorities about countervailing sanctions being applied to certain of SA's export stainless steel products.
By Alan Peat
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