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Article: Knock knock: South Africa and Europe. (free trade between the two countries)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- December 24, 1994
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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PRISING open South Africa's economy to trade and investment should be at the centre of economic policy, Thabo Mbeki, its first deputy president, told the African National Congress's conference on December 18th. He might have added that South Africa also needs its trading partners to open their economies to it. Sanctions are dead, but exports still face plenty of obstacles.
In the first ten months of 1994, the value of South Africa's exports inched up by only 2%. One reason lies at home. Many businesses, raised and coddled by a siege economy, have still to learn the art of making competitively priced goods and selling them without shame or discretion abroad. But South ...