Export costing based on free
trade benefits
ANOTHER STOP-GO hiccup in the SA-EU (European Union) trade agreement saw local trade consultancies rushing around their client companies trying to soothe exporters' rather fragile nerves.
The latest problem surrounded an ambassadorial level meeting held in Brussels on the night of January 26, when it was decided to defer the final decision on a possible suspension of the agreement.
The suspension has been proposed by certain EU member states - which have yet to ratify an agreement already signed and sealed at European Commission (EC) level.
The latest furore stems from the refusal of Italy and Greece to support the agreement - citing lack of protection for their grappa and ouzo labels on spirits (which they claim are national intellectual property).
This was completely unacceptable, according to SA Minister of Trade & Industry, Alec Erwin. He was quoted in Business Day as saying that, in a signed agreement, an absurd development had seen some EU states implementing the deal, while others refused to ratify it.
He described this as hostage taking tactics. If SA made concessions on grappa and ouzo, there will be 70 other names to follow, Erwin said.
Harbouring a suspicion that there could be some hidden agenda behind this latest stalling tactic, Riaan de Lange, head of Deloitte & Touche's international trade consultancy, condemned what he termed as the political huffery-puffery surrounding the agreement.
This latest Italian/Greek combined effort was using the Wine & Spirits Agreement - a subsidiary section of the overall trade pact - to confuse the issue when it came to the agreement as a whole.
And, he pointed out, any possible suspension of the agreement was exceedingly worrying to SA companies whose export costing was based on the free trade benefits of the pact. This don't know sort of situation is not good for anybody's nerves, he said.
Erwin is also demanding clarity on the affair. Unless this was forthcoming, he said, SA could exercise its rights in terms of the agreement - and might possibly put the pact's dispute resolution mechanism into practice.
The EC, meantime, while promising to try to defuse the ouzo/grappa strife, left itself an escape route should it fail. That it had to take into account the wishes of all the EU members.
Copyright Now Media (Pty) Ltd
No article may be reproduced without the written permission of the editor
To respond to this article send your email to joyo@nowmedia.co.za
