As part of the DFID-funded South Africa Trade and Poverty Programme and its objective to promote informed dialogue on South Africa's trade policy amongst key stakeholders, TIPS in 2005 implemented a seminar series under the auspices of Nedlac. These seminars provided a platform for government and civil society representatives (business, labour and broader social interest groups) to discuss critical issues concerning the role of trade policy in fostering poverty reduction and human development in South Africa.

The practice of import-parity pricing has received much attention in the media in 2005. Import-parity pricing is being challenged at the Competition Tribunal, and the dti has been negotiating with various firms to limit its use. At the seminar, Professor Simon Roberts of the Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development Research Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand who has for a number of years researched this issue and its implications in different sectors of the economy explained how import parity pricing works, where its effects are felt and different ways in which the practice could be limited.

The seminar is part of the the South Africa Trade and Poverty Programme (SATPP) funded by the Department For International Development (DFID-SA), and is organised by NEDLAC and TIPS.

As part of the DFID-funded South Africa Trade and Poverty Programme and its objective to promote informed dialogue on South Africa's trade policy amongst key stakeholders, TIPS in 2005 implemented a seminar series under the auspices of Nedlac. These seminars provided a platform for government and civil society representatives (business, labour and broader social interest groups) to discuss critical issues concerning the role of trade policy in fostering poverty reduction and human development in South Africa.

Towards the end of 2004, TIPS and a number of its network researchers as well as external analysts reviewed several sectors of the South African economy as part of a project commissioned by the Presidency and the ComMark Trust to inform policy debate. As part of this process, Dr. Justin Barnes analysed the clothing sector, its major markets and production trends, as well as its broader dynamics. Based on this analysis, various clothing sector constraints and opportunities and hence policy-related challenges were identified. Barnes discussed these issues, as well as the way this work informed the current debate on calls for increased protection for the clothing sector at this workshop.

The seminar is part of the the South Africa Trade and Poverty Programme (SATPP) funded by the Department For International Development (DFID-SA), and is organised by NEDLAC and TIPS.

As part of the DFID-funded South Africa Trade and Poverty Programme and its objective to promote informed dialogue on South Africa's trade policy amongst key stakeholders, TIPS in 2005 implemented a seminar series under the auspices of Nedlac. These seminars provided a platform for government and civil society representatives (business, labour and broader social interest groups) to discuss critical issues concerning the role of trade policy in fostering poverty reduction and human development in South Africa.

At this seminar, Sarah Truen of Genesis Analytics presented a comparative study to assess how close to or how far from the competitive, or best practice, price benchmark South Africa's telecommunications prices are. She finds that there is no innate reason why South Africans should not have access to telecommunications services at such a benchmark price level, and therefore compares South Africa to a best-practice peer group.

The seminar is part of the the South Africa Trade and Poverty Programme (SATPP) funded by the Department For International Development (DFID-SA), and is organised by NEDLAC and TIPS.

TIPS will be holding an introductory training workshop on the use of the International Trade Centre's (ITC) online Market Analysis Tools (TradeMap & Product Map) in Pretoria.The seminar will focus on the utilisation of ITC's tools for market analysis in the development of international trade strategies.

As part of the DFID-funded South Africa Trade and Poverty Programme and its objective to promote informed dialogue on South Africa's trade policy amongst key stakeholders, TIPS in 2005 implemented a seminar series under the auspices of Nedlac. These seminars provided a platform for government and civil society representatives (business, labour and broader social interest groups) to discuss critical issues concerning the role of trade policy in fostering poverty reduction and human development in South Africa.

Dr. Lawrence Edwards of the University of Cape Town presented his and Tijl van de Winkel's work on the market disciplining effects of trade liberalisation and regional import penetration on South African manufacturing. His research advances existing empirical work in several ways. First, it uses detailed sector-level tariff data as one of the indicators of changes in economic openness. Calculating tariff levels for 26 manufacturing sectors between 1988 and 2002 using both scheduled tariff rates and collection duties, the research tests the robustness of the relationship between tariff liberalisation and mark-ups to different measures of tariff protection. Edwards also presented their analysis of the impact of regional imports on mark-ups in the manufacturing sector between 1988 and 2002.

The seminar is part of the the South Africa Trade and Poverty Programme (SATPP) funded by the Department For International Development (DFID-SA), and is organised by NEDLAC and TIPS.

The Forum is an annual event bringing together members of the research, academic and policy communities to discuss economic policy issues of South African and regional interest. The Forum is generally attended by upwards of 150 delegates, including senior academics and government officials from South Africa and the region. The 2005 event aimed to develop these links and strengthen the flow of relevant research into policy-making by focusing on economic growth, particularly through the lenses of sector strategies and trade policy. Forum 2005 was jointly organised by TIPS and the DPRU at the University of Cape Town, in association with UNU-WIDER (World Institute for Development Economic Research of the United Nations University). This was the ninth year that TIPS organised a Forum, which was funded by GTZ.

See Annual Forum papers

TIPS and the WITS School of Economics and Business Sciences hosted, on behalf of the World Bank, a seminar on poverty impacts of the Doha Development Agenda.
This seminar reported on the findings from a forthcoming book based on a major international research project investigating the poverty impacts of a potential Doha Development Agenda Agreement.

As part of the DFID-funded South Africa Trade and Poverty Programme and its objective to promote informed dialogue on South Africa's trade policy amongst key stakeholders, TIPS in 2005 implemented a seminar series under the auspices of Nedlac. These seminars provided a platform for government and civil society representatives (business, labour and broader social interest groups) to discuss critical issues concerning the role of trade policy in fostering poverty reduction and human development in South Africa.

This was the first seminar in the series. Discussions, led by Matthew Stern, the director of USAID's Support for Economic Growth and Analysis Project, were based on DFID'sTrade and Poverty Handbook.

The seminar is part of the the South Africa Trade and Poverty Programme (SATPP) funded by the Department For International Development (DFID-SA), and is organised by NEDLAC and TIPS.

Input-output analysis, complemented by means of social accounting matrices is often used as a tool to conduct such meso-level economic enquiry. Researchers frequently use these tools to analyse the impact on production, the environment, prices, employment and income effects of policy related changes in international trade, taxes, fiscal policy and investment. Economic modelling techniques that capture economy-wide impacts of policy changes are increasingly being used in South African academic, consulting and research circles. To cater for this increased demand, the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town in conjunction with the Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) are offering the fourth one week introductory course in economy-wide policy impact analysis.

The Presidency and the ComMark Trust, in collaboration with TIPS, hosted a workshop to assess and discuss the prospects of key sectors of the South African economy in preparation for the Presidency's contribution to the January 2005 Cabinet Lekgotla:

• The sectoral, micro-level dynamics and trends of key sectors;
• The constraints and opportunities which these sectors face in both the domestic and export markets;

• The policy levers available to government to invigorate sector development;

• The likely growth potential of individual sectors if identified constraints could be addressed effectively; and

• The likely spill-over effects of sectoral growth for the macroeconomy. The aim of the workshop was to inform government policy and planning processes at both departmental and inter-departmental levels through the research presented and the discussions and research work that followed. Papers were presented on a wide range of sectors, including the automotive, metals and machinery, chemicals, clothing, business process outsourcing, telecommunications, tourism, grain milling and wine industries. TIPS presented a South African Sectoral Outlook for 2004-2009. Approximately 50 delegates attended this workshop, with significant numbers from the private sector and government departments. The business media widely reported on the workshop and its debates as an important forecast of South African economic performance for the next five years.