Zuma returns with regional trade deal
President Jacob Zuma’s high-powered trip to Brazil bagged the official signing of a medium-sized trade liberalisation deal. Business Report says about 1,000 individual trade items will now be tariff free between the Southern African Customs Union and Mercosaur, which is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. We’ll have to wait for details of the deal to see what value of trade will be affected, but it is the broader implications of the deal that are most interesting. World Trade Organisation liberalisation talks fell apart, but bilateral and regional agreements are fast making up the difference.
