South-South Co-operation: Ibsa is About More Than Just Trade
“Regional agreements are not to be embraced carelessly, like teenage love affairs.” These words by Pascal Lamy, the director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), may have referred to regional integration in Europe but resonate clearly in the context of South Africa’s ambitious pursuit of bilateral trade agreements, particularly those with strategic partners of the South.
National Director’s Inaugural Address: Taking Africa Seriously From Within and Without
This is an abridged version of the 20 October 2005 inaugural speech by Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, the new national director of the South African Institute of International Affairs.
National Director’s Inaugural Address – 20 October 2005
In her inaugural address, Ms Elizabeth Sidiropoulos looked at how Africa is evolving and how the continent needs to have an open and frank self-assessment to meet its challenges head-on.
Some African labour markets don’t work, but competition helps
Labour market regulation is a thorny issue in African economic policy debates. In many African countries, labour movements played an important role in liberation struggles.
The Elusive Search for an African NGO?
The apartheid regime funded, banned and bombed them, the Mugabe regime is legislating them out of existence and the Godfather of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is now questioning their integrity.
Civil Society Must Lead the Way
Two weeks ago, Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi announced, out of the blue, that the drafting phase in the South Africa process for the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) would start this coming Wednesday and end in November.
The Chicago Climate
The Kyoto Protocol may be the first global environmental agreement, but it isn’t the first attempt at creating a market for hot air. The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), a voluntary big-business initiative to curb emissions, pioneered by 28 large American corporations such as Ford and DuPont, opened in early 2003. The scheme involves participants making legally binding pledges to reduce their emissions, and provides for trade between members, along the same lines as Kyoto, to achieve this.
Special Feature: Carbon Trading – A New Source of African Finance
Innovative countries are starting to finance new projects through the Kyoto treaty, which allows industrialised nations to cut emissions by paying for pollution reduction in the South.
What is Carbon Trading?
Under the Kyoto Protocol, each industrialised country is assigned a legally-binding greenhouse emissions quota, which it must meet or face penalties.
Trade Pact Expiry Weaves Worry for Global Textile Industry
The elimination of quotas on the global exchange in textiles and clothing on 1 January 2005 marked the end of one of the most contentious provisions of the international system of trade rules and the start of a wide-ranging shift in the worldwide production of everything from socks to satin sheets.