The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a unilateral trade policy concession governing United States and sub-Saharan Africa trade and investment relations. AGOA enhances US market access for 40 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, including South Africa. Signed into law by the US Congress in May 2000, AGOA has been renewed several times and is now set to expire in September 2015.

With the review of AGOA currently underway, this seminar, will bring together the region's foremost trade think tanks (i.e. South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), TIPS and trade law centre (Tralac); industry leaders and key government officials, to discuss and engage the impact of AGOA and what this unilateral dispensation means for South Africa.  Specifically, the session will provide an overview of AGOA's policy successes and challenges and engage participants on AGOA's impact on South Africa's competitiveness, with specific focus on the citrus and automotive sectors.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

José Gabriel Palma is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics, Cambridge University. He has a D. Phil in Economics from Oxford University, a PHD from Cambridge University (by incorporation) and a D. Phil in Political Science from Sussex University.  He worked during the Government of Salvador Allende in the nationalisation of the copper industry, and after his graduate work in the UK he worked as a lecturer at the universities of London, Sussex, Oxford and Cambridge. He has published articles and books dealing with the economics of developing countries, with a strong focus on Latin America and Asia. He has also written extensively on inequality, financial liberalisation and financial crises, industrial policy, the history of ideas in development economics and politics, and Latin American economic history.

Document can be found at: http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/dae/repec/cam/pdf/cwpe1111.pdf

Susan Newman currently holds the position of lecturer in international economics at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University of Rotterdam. Her main research interests include the political economy of post-apartheid industrial development in South Africa, the relationship between financial and physical markets for commodities, and the relationship between finance and the restructuring of production. She holds a visiting position at the University of the Witwatersrand and has contributed to industrial policy research for the South African Department of Trade and Industry and the Gauteng Department of Economic Development.

Samantha Ashman is currently a Post- Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg. She is also a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her research interests include the financialization of the global economy and its implications; the relationship between real and financial accumulation; the evolution of South Africa's Minerals Energy Complex; and Industrial Policy.

Sheila Farrell is an experienced international ports consultant who has undertaken around 120 port consulting assignments in more than 50 countries, most of them concerned with port economics and finance, tariff setting, port reform and privatisation, and regulation.  Several of the projects have been linked to the development of port-related industries. She has over 40 years of experience of port and shipping consultancy. As well as working as a port consultant, she is also a Visiting Professor in Port Operations Research at Imperial College London. She is a member of an EU-funded multi-national group of academics undertaking a four year research programme into improving the effectiveness of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in transport, and has written two books on the subject of financing transport infrastructure.  She also writes and teaches on economic and financial issues relating to ports.

Abstract

CDI's Context of Public Primary Education Research Project is an extension of this South African Community Capability Study, in that it further zooms into the education dimension within communities by investigating its relationship to formal schooling in its location. Part of this project attention is paid to the Community Work Programme (CWP) that is implementing its meaningful work for basic income intervention in certain schools, including in four of the communities in the study. This report presents the findings of the perceptions and experiences of public primary schools that are beneficiaries of the CWP as well as the experiences of CWP participants' in working in public primary schools.

About the speaker

Melani Prinsloo is a founding member of the Centre for Democratising Information (CDI), where she undertakes the strategic leadership of the organisation as a whole. CDI has positioned itself as a significant and unique research entity – operating a community-based research platform focussing on under-developed communities. CDI and Infusion's clients include Department of Basic Education, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health, Business Trust, SoulCity, Finmark Trust, Standard Bank, FNB, African Life, Sanlam, Metropolitan, Shoprite, Vodacom, Microsoft, MultiChoice, Financial Services Board and more. CDI aims to address the shortage of reliable, detailed information on under-developed by training unemployed people from communities to act as information agents, gathering data for surveys designed to investigate the context in which people live and make their decisions. A significant part of Melani's role is to identify and manage a network of people who engage on these research projects to ensure that each project is supported by a suitable, relevant and well-aligned team.

Abstract: 

The International Energy Agency stated in its World Energy Outlook 2012 that global conventional crude oil production peaked in 2008. Total world oil exports have been stagnant since 2005 as oil exporting countries consume more of their own output and some battle against depletion. Unconventional oil production is growing, but the economic and environmental costs are large and the net energy return is very low. The Middle East North Africa region, home to the largest share of remaining oil reserves, is in political turmoil, threatening disruptions to oil supplies.  

Within this context, oil importing countries such as South Africa need to prepare for oil price and supply shocks. This Development Dialogue will interrogate research being undertaken for the UK Department for International Development on "oil shock mitigation strategies for developing countries", with SA as a case study. The focus includes preparations for both short-term oil shocks (precipitated for example by geopolitical or extreme weather events) and long- term strategies to ensure energy and specifically liquid fuel supply security in a context of global oil depletion, declining world oil exports, falling energy return on investment, and increasing oil price volatility. This Dialogue is of relevance to not only to the energy sector, but also to transport, macro-economics, trade and industry, and agriculture.

About the speakers

Jeremy Wakeford: Dr Jeremy Wakeford is an economist specialising in energy and sustainability. He is a Senior Lecturer Extra- Ordinary in the School of Public Leadership at Stellenbosch University and consults to government departments, private sector clients and NGOs. He is currently leading a research project developing 'oil shock mitigation strategies for developing countries', commissioned by the UK's Department for International Development. 

Bongani Motsa: Mr Bongani Motsa is a macro-economist specialist at the Department of Energy. He is part of the team that is developing the Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) for South Africa. Prior to joining the Department, he worked on African economic integration for Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS). He holds a Master's degree in economics (majoring in econometrics) from the University of Pretoria.