South Africa's engagement with the European Union is legally regulated through the Trade, Development and Co-operation Agreement (TDCA). In 2005, South Africa commenced a review of this instrument. That process is nearly complete and will be presented during the envisaged Summit with the European Union on 25 July 2008, in Nantes, France.
During this review process South Africa proposed to lift out the trade chapter and review it within the context of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) negotiations. This we did correctly guided by our own interest to promote greater convergence in the trade regime amongst the countries of our region. After a long delay the EU agreed to this approach.
Regrettably the impact of these EPA negotiations has tended to subvert our efforts towards regional integration. Not only have Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries been parcelled into different EPAs. Consequently, in December last year we saw deep cleavages appearing even among the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) members. South Africa, Angola and to some extent Namibia are raising concerns on account of both the imbalance in the exchange of concessions and on the negative implications for regional integration contained within the interim EPAs.
We remain of the firm view that we should continue to do everything we can to ensure our region indeed acts in a manner consistent with imperatives to advance regional integration. In this context we appeal to our partners in the EU, to respect this especially as they know from their own experience, how critical this is, to enable our countries to grow their economies and benefit from the unstoppable force of globalisation.
