Leveraging Services Trade Liberalisation for Enhanced Food Security in SADC

The document examines the link between services trade liberalisation and food security in the SADC region. It argues that inefficient, monopolised network services—specifically finance, transport, communications, and energy—hinder agricultural productivity and the development of value-added agro-processing. While SADC has focused on tariff reductions for goods, the author contends that fast-tracking the Services Protocol and improving core infrastructure is necessary to reduce transaction costs and mitigate the impact of food price shocks.

• Agricultural productivity in SADC has declined over several decades, with per capita production growth falling from an average of 130 in the 1960s to 101 in the 2000s.
• SADC's regional integration efforts have prioritised the liberalisation of trade in goods and tariff reductions, while services trade liberalisation has been largely ignored or treated with a 'no risk, no gain' approach.
• The SADC Services Protocol, adopted in July 2009, identifies six priority sectors for liberalisation: transport, communications, financial, construction, tourism, and energy, with a goal to conclude negotiations by 2015.
• Network services in SADC—comprising communications, energy, finance, and transport—are described as highly deficient, overregulated, and often monopolised by government parastatals, which leads to high costs and reduced competitiveness.
• Inefficient services and poor infrastructure exacerbate food insecurity; specifically, during the 2007–2008 food crisis, service deficiencies worsened high prices in food-importing countries.
• Liberalising services trade could facilitate a shift from exporting raw commodities to value-added agricultural processing by providing necessary facilities such as cold storage, packhouses, and refrigerated transport.

APA

Dube, M. (2012). Leveraging Services Trade Liberalisation for Enhanced Food Security in SADC. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Policy-Briefing-49.pdf

Chicago

Dube, Memory. Leveraging Services Trade Liberalisation for Enhanced Food Security in SADC. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2012. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Policy-Briefing-49.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Dube |first1=Memory |title=Leveraging Services Trade Liberalisation for Enhanced Food Security in SADC |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=June 2012 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Policy-Briefing-49.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{dube2012leveraging, author = {Dube, Memory}, title = {{Leveraging Services Trade Liberalisation for Enhanced Food Security in SADC}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2012}, month = jun, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Policy-Briefing-49.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }