It’s Time to Stop Blaming China Alone Over Textiles
CHINA-bashing in SA is intensifying. It is centred on clothing and textile imports. But diminishing returns are setting in; the blame game is becoming tiresome.
More sour than sweet in SA-China trade relations
HAILED as an overwhelming success, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to South Africa raises profound questions about bilateral engagement and how we will deal with global economic and trade dynamics in the coming decade.
Food for Thought in a Hungry Region
Food security has consistently eluded Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries over the past five years. Millions of people still suffer from chronic starvation and malnutrition.
Development through Trade: Reforming Customs Procedures
I HAVE travelled to many parts of the world and seen processes far worse than those that greet visitors to Johannesburg International Airport (JIA): Mumbai and Sao Paulo come to mind; New York is no picnic.
Development through Trade: Cosatu’s ‘big push’
AS I write, Cosatu is deliberating on its industrial strategy vision. In the wake of the Chinese textiles saga, in which trade union influence was palpable, it is important to understand what this vision means for government’s economic policy and industrial strategy.
China-bashing no basis for policy
WHILE I have never worked in the fashion industry, I do know that South African fashions lag European and American.
SA must take Chinese bull by the horns or get kicked
China has emerged as a driver of change, globally. And 2007 will be no different from recent years; if anything, existing pressures will intensify.
Engaging Asia’s Biggest Tiger
China’s rise is inevitable. As long as it remains an outward-oriented economy, China will continue to drive restructuring processes in manufacturing all over the world, particularly in countries that have until now enjoyed the advantages of relatively cheap labour.
Development through Trade: South Africa’s exchange rate policies
GOVERNMENT is giving “some consideration” to our exchange rate policies. For exporters, local manufacturers and those who feel that our current macroeconomic policy framework is a straightjacket inhibiting higher growth, including some of the Harvard group advising government, it must be great news.
In search of a development agenda
The past five years have seen the European Union (EU) and its former colonies in the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) group locking horns in potentially far-reaching trade and develo-ment negotiations.