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  • The Impact of Rising Food and Fuel Prices on Small Business

    TIPS was commissioned by FABCOS (The Foundation for African Business and Consumer Services) to undertake a study on the impact of fuel and food price increases on small business. As FABCOS has a large constituency of informal or previously informal businesses, a strong emphasis was placed on the impacts for informal businesses. Some key outcomes are highlighted below:

    Fuel Prices

  • The Think Tank Initiative – First Call for Expressions of Interest: East and West Africa

    The Think Tank Initiative invites applications from independent African organisations that are committed to using research to inform and influence social and economic policy. The Initiative will provide multi-year funding to promising think tanks, and will work with successful applicants to improve their organizational performance.

    For more details on the Initiative and the application process, visit The Think Tank.
    Deadline: August 19, 2008

  • Driving Industrial Policy: The Road Ahead
    In his State of the Nation address in February 2007, President Thabo Mbeki announced some stimulus towards the industrial policy strategy totalling over R7-billion in tax incentives and support. This was followed by some details in the Budget Speech provided by Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel in the subsequent week. Read more...
  • Regional Integration: Bodies of conflict or part of the bigger picture?
    The inconclusive economic partnership agreement (EPA) of 2007 has had to give way for other trade-related topics as developing countries having other challenges to face. EPAs have always been associated with additional confusion beyond multiple memberships. Implementation of the regional integration in Southern Africa in conjunction with the EPAs was always going be complicated from a developing country view and there are still concerns that EPAs will undermine regional integration initiatives. Read more...
  • Outcome Undesirable: To What End an Interim EPA?
    One of the major talking points around the EPAs is that negotiations have greatly undermined regional integration initiatives in Eastern and Southern African and elsewhere. The State of Doha Round - It has been more than six years since the Doha Development Round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) was launched at the Fourth Ministerial Conference (1). The agenda initiated negotiations on agriculture and services.
  • Principles of trade: SA & its developed and developing partners

    Post-apartheid South Africa embarked on a trade policy framework to make the economy competitive by engaging the international community. That framework took the economy through a gradual process of reforms that resulted in a shift - from being one of the most protected and distorted markets in the world to the one that reflects openness.

  • The day the regulator refused Petronet
    The National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) is just over a year old but has quickly established itself as a force to be taken seriously. From its comprehensive reports on SA's electricity crisis to its two landmark petroleum pipeline decisions, it has show that it is a regulator in the true sense of the word and not a negotiator.

    View the attached news article to read more.

  • WTO forecasts trade growth slowdown in 2007
    GENEVA, April 12 (Xinhua) -- World trade is expected to grow slower in 2007 given the prospect of weaker economic expansion in the coming year, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Thursday.The global trade growth could slow down to 6 percent from 8 percent last year as world economic growth is expected to slip to 3 percent from last year's 3.7 percent, the WTO said in a report on trade in 2006 and prospects for 2007.
  • Southern Africa Trade Database: 2005 Data
    2005 Trade data for a number of countries have been uploaded for various Member States on the Southern African Trade Development website.
  • South Africa: SA 'Facing a Critical Year' Over World Trade Talks
    The trade and industry department says this will be a critical year for SA's trade negotiations in the international arena, marking out the country's parameters in international trade relations.