On Thursday 20 November, the European Union and South Africa signed a Clean Trade and Investment Partnership (CTIP) and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on minerals and metals value chains. New projects under the European ‘Global Gateway’ investment programme were also signed in Johannesburg on the same day.
CTIP. The agreement is expected to facilitate trade and investment in so-called ‘clean’ value chains. It is not, however, a traditional legally binding trade agreement.
CTIP will focus on the following sectors: - renewable and low-carbon energies; - electrical grids; - clean fuels; - raw materials value chains; - technologies for adapting to and mitigating climate change.
In practical terms, the two parties are committed to tackling barriers to trade, facilitating investment from a regulatory point of view, and mobilising public and private funding around the sectors mentioned. The agreement should also facilitate the implementation of EIB financing under the “Just Energy Transition Partnerships”.
“This new, dynamic form of trade agreement brings together competitiveness and climate action”, boasted the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who officially signed the agreement in Johannesburg.
In a press release, the Commission welcomes the flexibility of this type of mini-trade agreement, which makes it possible to strengthen the economic ties between two partners “without creating excessively heavy structures.”
For its part, however, the European Parliament is concerned about the proliferation of these new types of agreement, which do not require its approval (see EUROPE 13744/19).
Agreement on minerals. The memorandum of understanding on minerals is the fifth of its kind between the EU and an African country.
Non-binding, it aims to guarantee secure access to raw materials for the EU and to encourage sustainable processing of the raw materials concerned in partner countries. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)