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South Africa is a privileged member of various global governance clubs. This status is based on its relative economic weight in sub-Saharan Africa and its legacy of 'soft power' derived from the peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy. However, those foundations are waning in the face of the African National Congress (ANC) government's growing ambivalence towards democratic norms and the relatively rapid growth and development taking place in sub-Saharan Africa. The ANC government's own policy choices, particularly its emphasis on state-driven economic policy, and the internecine power struggles racking the party have set the country's economic policy adrift. Thus investor confidence has been undermined at a time of global economic crisis. Taken together, these trends suggest South Africa's days as the African representative of choice are numbered. Ironically, this development may portend reversal of current trends, by concentrating the ANC leadership's collective mind on what really needs to be done to restore growth, and international confidence, in the country.

For the last five years the European Union has been negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) states. These negotiations, aiming for Free Trade Agreements, are fraught with substantive problems. There is also a looming crisis. In the New Year the WTO waiver for the current shape of EU-ACP preferential trade accords will expire. The EPAs are intended to replace the current trade order, but the negotiations will hardly finish this year. In this paper Peter Draper, Senior Fellow of ECIPE, unfolds the EPA negotiations and sets out a policy case for broad and comprehensive trade agreements to succeed the current preferential arrangement.

The issues in the negotiations between the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the US for a free trade area are complex and difficult. This article looks at whether there is room for sufficient trade offs to enable a successful conclusion to the process. (SAJIA)