The Impact of the Changing Political and Legal Environment, with the Establishment of the European Union on Trade Between Europe and South Africa

The first RTA I chose to discuss is a Non-Reciprocal Trade Arrangement called Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). USTR.gov states, “In 2013, U.S. goods imports from sub-Saharan African under AGOA and the related GSP program totaled $26.8 billion, more than three times the amount in 2001, the first full-year of AGOA trade.” There are challenges for this agreement as the site later states, “Exports of U.S. poultry have been effectively excluded from the South African market for 15 years due to a range of trade barriers and other measures.” This agreement has potential to assist the African economy in numerous ways as the exports can create large revenue for Africa and can also provide employment opportunities. The difficulty lies with changing trade barriers that could begin to cause more products and materials to have higher taxes associated.

The Euro and its Impact on the U.S. Economy The euro is the official currency of the following 12 European nations: Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, and Finland. Although it has been the official currency since January 1,1999 it became physical tender which can be used by all participating countries on January 1,2002. The introduction of the euro into the world was truly a historic event; it represented a unity never before seen in the history of Europe, a common currency. After years of negotiations and much skepticism from around the globe, the implementation of the euro is no longer an abstract ideal, but a change that nations, corporations, and investors must

The European Union (EU) is a political economic union of 28 members. The founders are France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Italy, Netherlands, and Germany. The Maastricht treaty established the European Union in 1993. The EU aims to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital and regional development. These 28 member states have successfully integrated because of their similar cultural lifestyles.

The European Union (EU) is a unique economic and political partnership between 28 different countries. It consists of about half a billion citizens, and its combined economy represents about 20 percent of the world’s total economy (Briney, 2015). Today The European Union works as a single market, with free movement of people, goods and services from one country to another. There is a standard system of laws to be followed, and since 1999 many countries share a single currency called the Euro (Europa.eu, 2015). This essay will explore the background history of the European Union and the benefits and drawbacks of the European Union.

As of 2012, only seventeen of members of the European Union have decided to use Euros as their currency. In order for the members that adopted the Euro as their currency to successfully help their economic problems, the Eurozone members had to follow strict instructions put into place the European Union. The strict policies included strict control over inflation, government debt, and long-term interest rates (Mckee 525). The union put these strict policies into place to give the union the tools that it needed to take in order to help fix the economic crisis in each country participating in the Eurozone. Without the full cooperation of each country, it could cause the plans to fix the economic crisis within each country to fail because of the different interests by each individual country.

The euro is not the currency of all EU Member States. Two countries (Denmark and the United Kingdom) have ‘opt-out’ sections in the Treaty excusing them from involvement, while the rest (numerous of the more recently agreed EU members plus Sweden) have yet to meet the situations for approving the single currency.

19. The Single European Act committed EU countries to adopt a single currency, the euro.

The European Union consists of 28 member states and has a population of 503 million inhabitants, and a total surface area of over 4 million square miles. The EU has its own currency, the Euro, and the largest single market in the world. It is a global community and power and has a huge influence on our world today in many aspects, and has been slowly built up to what it is today through humanistic ideology , common interests, new structures, treaties, economic policy and the attempt of equality throughout.

The EU sought to simplify trade within European neighbors and to replace national currencies with a single shared currency that could compete with the dollar on the global stage. The members of the newly-formed European Union agreed to a fixed currency conversion rate when the Euro was adopted (Scheller). Initially, the EU only had 11 members, but membership has since grown to 25 member nations. These 25 member countries operate within what is called the Eurozone, over which the European Central Bank sets economic policy

1 Euro is equivalent to 4.15 UAE dirhams. Most of the countries in the EU use the Euro as their currency. However, some countries in the EU don’t use the Euro and they are the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, and

The superimposing factor that gives South Africa such an advantage over other prospective African business environments is that it possesses of a very powerful and sophisticated vantage-point geographically. South Africa is strategically located for manufacturing and exportation into several regions globally and can be an unmitigated platform for MNC’s who may be interested in a venture within this region. The important advantages include regional competitiveness, combined with reduced operational costs and a significantly prominent market access (Safrica.info, 2011).

There are many benefits of trading within the EU, the agreement in 1993 was effectively the start of what we now refer to as the single market, it removed the borders of a member country for trade enabling the free movement of goods between members without the encumbrance of the customs process and reducing the need of a significant amount of accompanying documents that was required for goods being moved across borders. Previously it was necessary for goods to be shipped with certificates of origin, Invoices, packing lists with a full breakdown of package contents. If moved by road, which is the normal method of transport within the EU, a CMR transport note

Did the Apartheid Era have a negative or neutral influence on the South African economy including international trade and the foreign sector?

In 1999 seventeen countries in the European Union adopted the Euro forming a Euro Area. With the adoption of the Euro these seventeen countries discontinued their old currencies and monetary policies. Monetary Policies

The European Union (EU) was established in order to prevent the horrors of modern warfare, experienced by most of Europe during the World Wars of the 20th century, from ever ensuing again, by aiming to create an environment of trust with the countries of Europe cooperating in areas such as commerce, research and trade (Adams, 2001). The EU has evolved into an economic, trade, political and monetary alliance between twenty-eight European Member States. While not all Member States are in monetary union (i.e. share the currency of the euro), those that are form the ‘Euro-zone’ (Dinan, 2006). The EU can pass a number of types of legislation, with a regulation, act, or law, being the most powerful. Its ‘tricameral’ (European Union, 2007)