Trade liberalisation and financial compensation : the BLNS states in the wake of the EU-South African trade and development agreement

This study discusses the fate of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS) following the 1999 free trade agreement between the European Union and South Africa. As members - with South Africa - of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the BLNS countries are now effectively locked into reciprocal trade liberalization with the EU. The BLNS governments' acceptance of the agreement was accompanied by offers of various forms of financial assistance. The study clarifies the links between trade liberalization and financial compensation, and their longer-term implications for BLNS countries' economic relations with the EU. It finds that not economic adjustment but the political acceptance of free trade has played a leading role in the way compensation payments have been granted. [ASC Leiden abstract]