Die Moontlike Implikasies Van Die Uruguay-Rondte Van Multilaterale Handelsonderhandelinge Vir Sumerafrika In Die Algemeen En Die Suid-Afrikaanse Landbousektor In Die Besonder

There is still a possibility that the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations will successfully be completed by early 1993. If there is consensus on a new GATT agreement on the basis of the current discussion document, the so-called Dunkel proposals, it will have several implications for South Africa's agricultural marketing system. This paper intends to summarise the development of negotiations in the Round and refers to the proposals for the liberalisation of world agricultural trade as detailed in the Dunkel paper. This paper shows that if these proposals were to be accepted and implemented it will amongst other things implicate that Article 87 of the Marketing Act should be abolished and that all quantitative import controls on agricultural products should be replaced by tariffs. This will have the effect that the Marketing Boards will lose their statutory powers on imported agricultural products. Apart from the effects on South African agriculture, the whole of Southern Africa would benefit from a successful completion of the Round as a failure will put the whole sub-continent in competition with strong trade-blocs in a situation where there is no organisation like the GATT guarding against unfair trading practices.