Not only are most exporters laughing all the way to the bank with the weakening Rand but both export and import are soon to receive a huge shot in the arm with new free trade agreements with South America and India to be announced shortly. As those of you who have dabbled in the two above industries will know import tax really dies eat into your profit margins, no matter what product it is that you are importing or exporting.
We are happy to publish this article via Japan's Kyodo News. Happy trading!!
(Kyodo) _ Brazil, India and South Africa agreed Wednesday to start working out details for the creation of a free trade area that will encompass the South American trade bloc Mercosur, the Southern African Customs Union and India, Brazil's local official news agency Agencia Brasil reported.
The Mercosur customs bloc encompasses Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay with Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela as associated members. SACU includes South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Thabo Mbeki have discussed the issue in a meeting in Brasilia under the framework of the India, Brazil and South Africa Dialogue Forum.
Diplomats estimate commercial exchanges among the three countries will soon leap from the current $4 billion to $10 billion. The most optimistic view is that this amount can be met in 2007.
The Brazil-India trade balance has been expanding fast from $1.03 billion in 2003, to $1.2 billion in 2004 and to $2.3 billion in 2005, according to official statistics.
"The fact that we are meeting here representing our countries, together with our businessmen, is the public affirmation of our belief in the South-South relationship," the local TV network Globo News quoted the Brazilian president as saying at the summit.
The IBAS Joint Declaration has expressed "full support and commitment to the expeditious establishment of the Working Group to focus on the modalities for the envisaged India-Mercosur-SACU Trilateral Free Trade Agreement."
Discussions at the summit, which has brought together for the first time the three heads of state within the context of IBAS, also have covered the reform of the U.N. Security Council, global trade, renewable sources of energy, agriculture, transport and sustainable development, according to Brazilian diplomats.
"Individually, we are just another country in the world, but, together, we will be a community involving India, Brazil, China, South Africa, Argentina and so many other countries that have decided to raise their heads and say to the world: we want to negotiate, we want to buy, we want to sell," the business daily Valor Economic quoted Lula da Silva as saying during a bilateral meeting with Singh on Tuesday.
Brazil and India also are members of what economists call the BRIC group of top developing economies, including China and Russia. The two countries also have led developing nations in the talks for global trade liberalization at the World Trade Organization.
The Indian prime minister stressed that the three countries are leaders in the area of alternative sources of energy. "IBAS can show our strength concerning these energy technologies," Singh told the local agency.
The Joint Declaration has "reiterated the importance of ensuring that any multilateral decisions related to the nuclear fuel cycle do not undermine the inalienable right of states to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in conformity with their international legal obligations."
This has been the first visit by India's head of state to Brazil in 38 years since then Prime Minister Indira Ghandi toured the country in 1968.
Singh has referred to the Brazilian technology to use alcohol produced from sugarcane to power vehicles in large scale and India's technology in the areas of solar and wind energy.
"The three nations are inspired by the unique view of changing the life of their peoples to the better," said the South African president, stressing the three countries must bring their businessmen together in order to meet the commercial goals.
A business meeting has taken place on the sidelines of the presidential summit to explore "synergies among the three countries through the promotion of trade and economic cooperation."
The closer Brazil-India commercial ties have included the signature of a memorandum of cooperation between Brazil's state oil monopoly Petroleo Brasileiro S/A (Petrobras) and Oil and Natural Gas Corp. of India for deepwater oil and gas exploration and production in Brazil, India and other countries.
South Africa's Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa observed that trilateral trade is still small amid unexplored opportunities.
"The figures indicate there is room to expand the commercialization of our products and services and the fact that there are opportunities we have been missing," Mpahlwa said.
The trilateral forum IBAS was created in 2003 focusing on building closer ties linking India, Brazil and South Africa including trade liberalization.
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