OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 8.45pm
TRADE and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said on Sunday he was confident that a signing of a free-trade agreement with the European Union would go ahead Monday despite eleventh-hour hitches.
Speaking while negotiators tried to salvage the deal, Erwin said: “I’m looking forward to tomorrow… We’ve had a few last-minute problems, but I’m sure we can iron them out.”
Erwin said the main dispute was a refusal by Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and France to sign the part of the accord concerning wine and spirits until South Africa agrees to it in writing.
The wine and spirit accord is supposed to settle the problem of using the names “sherry” and “port” on South African exports, and demands that Pretoria phase out the terms over 12 years.
The impasse has seen EU President Martti Ahtisaari, the president of Finland, cancel his trip to Pretoria where he was to have signed the free-trade accord with South African President Thabo Mbeki this week.
Erwin dismissed the sticking point as “last-minute doubts and uncertainty with the European Union”, and said they needed to “sort themselves out.”
He said South Africa has “indicated in the strongest possible terms” that it took exception to the five countries’ doubts whether it would keep its end of the wine and spirits deal.
“We certainly will implement the text of the agreement,” he said.
Erwin said negotiations over the past few days to resolve the impasse had been unsatisfactory.
“But that shouldn’t distract from the fundamentally important nature of this agreement, and we’re very sure that it will be signed,” he said.
South African government officials on Sunday disagreed on whether the signing would go ahead.
While one said it was “off for all intents and purposes,” another said “serious attempts to resolve the impasse” were going ahead.
According to SAPA the EU representatives at the talks in Johannesburg included EU commissioner Toul Nielson and several EU ambassadors.
The 200-page agreement, which was finalized on March 24 after three and a half years of negotiations, was overwhelming endorsed by the European Parliament on Wednesday.
It has to be signed by all 15 EU members before it can take effect in January.
The free-trade deal will liberalise nearly 90 percent of trade between the two signatories, which currently amounts to some 16 billion euros a year. — AFP