OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 4.00pm.
HITCHES in South Africa’s free trade deal with the European Union over the use of the terms grappa and ouzo are unacceptable, Britain’s visiting minister for Africa Peter Hain has told The Sunday Independent.
“I share South Africa’s intense frustration with the way in which all our interests are being held hostage to the future of commodities which are scarcely produced in South Africa,” the minister of state at the foreign office wrote in the paper.
“The procrastination of some European countries is unacceptable. We are working hard to try to bridge this obstacle,” he said.
The $17-billion trade deal, which was to have come into effect on January 1, stumbled after Italy and Greece demanded South Africa quit using the designations grappa and ouzo for liquors produced in relatively small quantities in the country.
Hain arrived in South Africa on Saturday to begin an official visit on Monday.
He will meet Deputy President Jacob Zuma and other senior government officials before leaving on February 6.