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President Cyril Ramaphosa has reaffirmed South Africa’s place in the G20, rejecting his United States counterpart Donald Trump’s claim that the country would be excluded from next year’s summit (X)

The new trade playbook: Africa’s response to US bilateralism

Donald Trump’s punitive tariffs will be felt across Africa

South Africa hosts the G20 leaders summit this weekend. (@G20org/X)

G20 finance track calls for IMF reform, revitalising the World Trade Organisation, inclusive global growth

The need to ensure the independence of central banks was also one of the key recommendations from South Africa’s G20 finance track

Graphic: John McCann/M&G

Democracy on the line in global economic trade stand-off

Donald Trump’s executive orders are of dubious constitutionality, having violated civil rights of federal workers, weaponised immigration laws and limited Congress’s powers over…

Grapefruit pass through a rinsing machine on the sorting line of the Canyon Pakker’s packhouse on the Blydevallei Boerdery citrus farm outside Hoedspruit. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Citrus clash: South Africa takes on the EU’s tough new export rules

The European Union has set out new regulations for citrus exports that will hurt South African citrus growers

Trade war: The Capture of Puerto Bello, 21 November 1739 by Samuel Scott. Portobello was ‘founded’ in 1597 by a Spanish explorer. From the 16th to the 18th centuries it was an important silver-exporting port. It was captured in 1739 by a British fleet during the War of Jenkins’ Ear. Photo: Pictures From History/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Trade agreements: The little known agent of global inequality

In the name of free trade, countries went to war in the 1700s and 1800s. Today, trade is the continuation of the politics of war by other means

(Unless South Africa’s  Covid-19 vaccine uptake improves soon, the country will be saddled with well over seven million expiring doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine by July — with nobody to offload them onto. Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

When free trade is not free

Free trade limits the policy space available to states worldwide, locking them into market-based trade and industrial policies.

Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. (Judges Matter)

JSC lets politics trump conscience and excellence

The sense that the commissioners who nominated five candidates for appointment to the Constitutional Court voted for their constituencies, rather than with their conscience, is…

28 May 2021, South Africa, Pretoria: Emmanuel Macron (l), President of France, and Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, attend the launch meeting of the Initiative for the Future of Vaccines in Africa at the University of Pretoria. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa (Photo by Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty Images)

France to join South Africa’s bid to increase support for Trips waivers at G7 meeting

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that South Africa could count on him to fix the inequalities associated with combating the virus

Superhero or supervillian? That’s the wrong question, writes Phillip Machanick. The right question is: How it is that philanthropist Bill Gates can
have so much influence over world health? Photo: Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket/Getty Images

No vaccine superheroes or supervillains: Fix the system

Is Gates a superhero or a supervillain? That’s the wrong question. The right question is: How it is that one person can have so much influence over world health?

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Khaya Sithole: Biden’s pledge boosts Covid waiver drive

But Big Pharma and the world trade body haven’t shifted on sharing vaccine intellectual property

A woman holds up a sign that reads “(Argentine President Mauricio) Macri, resign!” as she takes part in a demonstration against the government’s economic measures in Buenos Aires, Argentina September 6 2018. (Marcos Brindicci/Reuters)

Argentina ex-president Macri accused of spying on 400 journalists

The complaint states that the background checks on journalists were “neither ordered nor authorised by any magistrate”

The GDP decline in the first quarter caused a 30.1% decline in the unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2020, which is expected to worsen. (Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images)

E-commerce will assist economy

Allowing companies to sell products online will help them to stay afloat during the lockdown

Artificial ventilators are produced at a rapid rate at Sanko Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Saitama on April 8, 2020, amid an outbreak of the new coronavirus COVID-19. Japanís Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proclaimed a state of emergency to Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa, Chiba, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka for about one month on April 7th, and asked for refraining from going out to the extent possible. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a pandemic, globally widespread on March 11th.  (The Yomiuri Shimbun)

To fight Covid-19, we must fight intellectual property, trade and investment rules

These restrictions must be overturned or ignored because they are limiting the production and importing of essential medical equipment such as ventilators

We will get through this crisis together. Covid-19 can be defeated in Africa, and we can build back better. (Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg/Getty)

Corporate control of seeds hurts Africa

Governments don’t protect plant genetic resources, resulting in biodiversity destruction and growers dependent on seeds supplied by firms

(Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)

Ready or not? Britain’s ‘no deal’ planning

Ahead of April 12, Britain has begun to put plans into place to cushion their potential push out of the European Union

Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

UK minister breaks ranks with no-deal Brexit warning

Greg Clark’s comments contradicted official government policy of not ruling out a no-deal Brexit

Keep out: Migrants climb over a border wall into the United States from Mexico. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

Identity politics is about our quest for recognition

The rapid changes in the political and economic landscape have seen people around the world losing their sense of dignity and thus their identity

US President Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, John Bolton and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a working dinner after the G20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 1 2018. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Trade war: Signs of progress in US-China talks

The whole world is watching the talks between Washington and Beijing, hoping a 90-day tariff truce will hold

Africa’s Free Trade Agreement proposes a single market for goods and services and investments across 55 countries. (Shutterstock)

Why Nigeria had good reasons to delay signing Africa’s free trade deal

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement promises to redefine relations among African states and beyond

Biya’s repeated long absences from Cameroon, mostly in Switzerland or in his home village in southern Cameroon, have been bitterly criticised. (Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty)

US-led trade war a threat to multilateralism — Davies

BRICS countries are working on mitigating the impact of a trade war