Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (M Com (Business Management))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Business Management / unrestricted

Competition law is an integral building block in the attainment of regional integration, with Regional Economic Communities (RECs) on the continent making specific provision for competition policy in their founding and developmental agreements. However, in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Partner and Member states have implemented competition law in varying degrees, in some cases there is a complete vacuum. In this paper I wish to analyse the development and implementation of competition law in the respective regions, by dissecting the manner in which the regions have gone about promoting competition law in the regions, I shall further analyse the domestic development of competition law in some of the Partner and Member States. Due to the voluntary nature of the RECs some Member and Partner States of SADC and the EAC are also members of COMESA, this creates a multiplicity of regional obligations as well as domestic obligations. In light thereof I will further analyse the effect of overlapping membership of RECS, and whether it creates any unintended problems, and if so, how this has been dealt with or can be dealt with.

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Crucially important to a seller of any merchandise is to know, whether or not he will in fact be paid for the goods he ships to his buyer. The question becomes even more important when a foreign element is added to the transaction in the form of a buyer located in a far-away country about which no one knows too much. The exporter faces a risk of not being able to obtain the money due to him even if he himself has fulfilled his part of the bargain. Facing that problem he may end up using all sorts of methods and mechanisms to lower his risk exposure to an acceptable level, still realising, that the possibility of something going wrong cannot be eliminated completely. Some of the methods of payment risk management, which the exporter can employ, fall outside the realms of that agreement of sale which he has with the buyer and some, on the other hand, he must include into the contract itself Different methods of effecting payment clearly belong to the latter group due to the fact that the parties always have to agree on some method of effecting payment, using which the buyer fulfils his part of the agreement. It is submitted that it would be impossible to discuss a broad topic such as this without leaving something important outside the scope of the paper. That has been done in the context of this paper by leaving out all procedural aspects that do not have an effect on the exporters security of payment. Especially in the section that discusses documentary credits, the workings of the credit and banking procedures have been cut to minimum in order to include aspects that in my mind were important. It follows that this paper is in, principle about the possibilities that an exporter has, to use methods of payment beneficially and economically during the period of drafting the contract of sale. Furthermore, it must be mentioned that by assuming that the exporter is a bona fide merchant I've decided to leave out the vast material and case law relating to the fraud exception in the context of documentary credits.

In April 1994, the ministers of more than a hundred governments signed the Final Act Embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations achieved after seven and a half years of negotiation. The Act comprises the Agreement Establishing the Multilateral Trade Organization with its important Annexes 1 to 4 in its Part II, Ministerial Decisions and Declarations in its Part III and the Understanding on Commitments in Financial Services in Part IV. The WTO came into effect on 1 January 1995 and has 134 Members presently.

The focus of this thesis is on foreign direct investment (FDI). This is an aspect of international trade that has recently become increasingly important, not only to developing and developed countries in general, but to South Africa in particular; notably so when this country was admitted back to the larger international community of nations after April 1994. In the quest to address the many imbalances engendered by apartheid, South Africa's . ' policy-makers maintain that FDI may play a critical role in helping achieve the goals and objectives of the government's Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). It is for this reason that the creation of a climate conducive to both local and foreign investment is expected to be one of the top priorities of the new government of national unity (GNU). The important point stressed in this thesis is that, when devising policies and strategies aimed at increasing trade flows and attracting foreign investment into the 'new' South Africa, this country's policy-makers should, always, take into account the profound changes that the world trading system is currently undergoing. The current trends in world trade, FDI and regional integration are poised to influence the position of South Africa and the role it may play in the world economy of the 1990s and beyond. The writer of this thesis believes that the daunting challenge facing South Africa's policymakers is to understand these patterns and changes, as well as forces behind them, as a basis for developing the ability to respond constructively and positively. This is important, because this country will be expected to play its respective role according to the existing rules of the prevailing world economic order. In short, South Africa's policy-makers are faced with the task of devising some ingenious strategies and policies that may maximise the opportunities provided for South Africa by the new world trading environment. At the same time, those measures should also aim to minimise the potential negative effects arising from increased world-wide competition for international markets, trade and investment funds. The point is also made however, that the effectiveness of such strategies and policies will depend in large part on South Africa's efforts and political will to adjust to the new opportunities and challenges of the international trading environment. This thesis comprises four chapters. Chapter One discusses trends in world trade, FDI and regional integration in the 1990s and their possible implications for South Africa. Its aim is to provide the reader with a fuller appreciation of the international context within which South Africa's future trade and investment policies should be considered and implemented; because whatever approach South Africa adopts, it is imperative that it must be viable in the world trading environment of the 1990s. It will be shown for instance that, although the world trading environment of the 1990s is characterised by rapid 'globalisation' of world markets and proliferation of inward-looking regional trading arrangements (RT As), this decade is experiencing, on the one hand, growing 'protectionism' and concentration of world trade and investment funds in the developed market economies and greater marginalisation of the developing and least developed (LDCs) countries on the other. It will be shown further that these phenomena have a negative impact on the ability of the latter countries to play a meaningful role in international trade and investment. Chapter One concludes by looking at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the impact it will have on international trade relations in the 1990s and beyond. Chapter Two discusses the various determinants of FDI. In this chapter, it will be demonstrated that many analysts and governments hold the view that FDI is a 'good thing' as it is perceived to have a positive impact on other economic variables such as balance-of-payments, employment and capital creation, access to new markets and technological know-how. It will also be shown that in fact, many developing and transition countries are engaged in fierce competition for foreign investment, and that to this end, these countries have recently changed their respective foreign investment laws with the sole aim of creating a climate attractive to foreign investment in their respective economies. The determinants of FDI in this chapter are discussed under the following headings, viz. government policies ( e.g. ownership policies, taxation and subsidies, convertibility of foreign exchange and remittance of earnings, performance requirements, capital and price controls, etc.), locational determinants (e.g. host comparative advantage, host market size, etc.), structural determinants (e.g. economic 'openness', investment infrastructure, etc.), and economic determinants (e.g. international trade links, etc.). The impact of these various determinants will also be discussed as well as policy implications for South Africa. Chapter Three discusses the current constraints and opportunities for the 'new' South Africa in the quest for increased foreign-direct-investment-flows. It will be argue.d that although South Africa has deep-seated structural problems ( e.g. shortage of foreign capital and skills, lack of international competitiveness of its manufactured products, chronic unemployment, etc.), this country stands a good chance (given its developed infrastructure and a relatively dynamic manufacturing sector by African standards for instance) of being a possible destination for FDI and international trade flows. The last Chapter (Four) discusses various policy implications for South Africa in its attempt to attract FDI into this country. It will be demonstrated that whatever approach South Africa adopts, will be impacted upon by various factors, inter alia, the prevailing world trading environment, growing protectionism in the developed market economies, its obligations under the WTO, its trade relations with other SACU and SADC countries, and so on. It is suggested that South Africa's current trade regime needs to be overhauled as it is not conducive to the development of competitive industrial capabilities inter alia, due to a strong anti-export bias that is inherent in its policies. It will also be argued that the state - like in other high-growth East Asian economies - has an important role to play in fostering the competitiveness of certain industries for instance, as a way of promoting the international competitiveness of South Africa's manufactured products. The Conclusion summarises briefly the major issues covered in this thesis. Before turning to Chapter One it is important to make the following point: the idea of FDI is broad, controversial and multi-faceted. The writer of this thesis does not claim to provide a definitive account of how South Africa should deal with this complex phenomenon. On the contrary, this thesis should be treated merely as an attempt to provide a broad introductory overview from the South African perspective, of how this country could begin to address the issue of FDI with the aim of addressing its economic and trade problems, in the context of a changing world trading system of the 1990s.

The advent of trade in services theory has been a developing research topic since 1980, where various factors are in place to determine trade flows and the impact of regulatory frameworks and policies. Services trade is an important contributing factor towards economic objectives and continues to drive development. With growth in services trade across the globe there is increased value in understanding the impact of the services sector on the African continent. The evolving reliance on services towards globalisation in low-income economies is proven to contribute significantly to gross domestic product. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement was instituted to integrate economies by creating ease of access for the intra-trade of goods and services across the continent. This study aimed to explore the impact of the AfCFTA agreement on a regional financial services provider. The research followed a semi-structured interview methodology, which measured and tested the impact of the agreement on trade in services for this qualitative study. The results indicated that the service provider would adopt the AfCFTA agreement’s requirements in the expansion of its operations, to establish services across the continent. Although the minimum number of countries required supported the ratification process, a lot of work is needed to develop and understand the effect of international trade, on the back of reformative policy changes such as the AfCFTA agreement. / Mini Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MPhil / Unrestricted

This thesis presents a comparative analysis of the legal investment frameworks of the European Union and China in African countries. The thesis reviewed financial instruments of foreign direct investments, official development assistance and other official flows. The legal analysis focus on the demand on political conditions to access the financial assistance; under which conditions are the projects tendered; and which labor standards set the parties while the project is implemented. All reflected under the aspect of the fairest condition for African countries. The comparison figured out that the European Union with its demands for the implementation of human rights, democracy and the rule of law facing certain reluctance of most African governments for a full implementation while contrary to that the OneChina principle is broadly acknowledge by African governments to gain investments. When projects are tendered the research presents that the European Union searches for local and regional providers to strengthen African businesses. This with guidelines for core labor laws based on human rights when it comes to the implementation. While China tenders with a strong commercial self-interest and does not set any labor standards relaying on local laws and showing limited interest and understanding when it comes to implementation.

The objective of this paper is to assess the bilateral exports from an origin to a destination, in the context of countries belonging to the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and whether or not the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) leads to trade creation or trade diversion, or both. To study this, a panel gravity model is employed with 135 countries, from 2000-2014, using a Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood method (PPML). To study the impact of AFTA on trade creation/diversion, a set of three dummy variables are used, denoting whether the origin country belongs to ASEAN, whether the destination country belongs to ASEAN and finally, whether both origin and the destination countries belong to ASEAN. Along with AFTA, five other Regional Trade Agreements (RTA) are also taken into account. The main finding of this paper is that there is no pure trade creation nor pure trade diversion due to AFTA, but rather a significant export trade creation, that is, ASEAN’s exports to the rest of the world is positive and significant. Future policy implications could include measures to strengthen the regional economic cooperation amongst the members of ASEAN.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of certain demographic factors upon attitude formation. The attitudes of Texas registered nurses toward trade unionism and their own right to strike were measured in terms of the effects of these selected factors.