1st May 2009

Sacu-Turkey free-trade agreement

By: Riaan de Lange

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) intends to embark on a study into the potential for a free-trade agreement (FTA) between the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) and Turkey.

The overall goal of the study is to explore the feasibility of an FTA between SACU and Turkey, and the specific aims are to determine the current trade patterns between the two parties and the product profiling of the export and import baskets, to identify the offensive and defensive lists for South Africa and Sacu, to identify the tariff and nontariff measures affecting trade in goods and services, to determine the current and future extent of trade in services between Turkey and Sacu, to review the broad overview of Turkey’s investment regime, to determine how an FTA with Turkey will likely boost South Africa’s exports of dynamic products as well as those that are set out in the industrial policy framework, to provide different options on how Sacu can approach trade relations with Turkey, and to provide a cost-benefit analysis of an FTA with Turkey.