Deputy Speaker, I would like to take advantage of the invitation offered to me by the hon Oriani-Ambrosini to explain a few things about how we see trade with the African continent and its relationship to industrialisation. The first point is that we do believe that emerging markets, all of them, now have to turn to their domestic markets as a source of growth and development in the years that lie ahead.
The problem that we have in Africa is that colonialism divided us into 54 different countries and, as individual countries - particularly South Africa - we just have too small an internal market to support industrial development. But as large swatches of the continent, we do start to hit the numbers required. In fact, South Africa's flagship programme on the African continent at the moment is the negotiation of the tripartite SADC-Comesa- East African Community free trade area. I am pleased to say that these negotiations have reached a point at which there is understanding about what the content will involve. We will not seek to renegotiate the trade agreements that we have within each of the regional communities, but will focus on extending those to the other countries. So, in our case, we will be negotiating with the non-SADC members of Comesa and the East African Community.
We have also found that tariffs are not the main issue in interregional trade and particularly trade in value-added products. There are many other barriers in place. Some of these are regulations, but there is also inadequate infrastructure. And, in practice, we do not see a Great Wall of China between hard and soft infrastructure problems. We see the two as linked, and that is why we are championing things like the North-South Corridor, which we think is very important infrastructure development across that particular region.
The next phase, of course, will involve the negotiation of the continental free trade agreement, which is being championed by the AU, which we are supporting as well. That will create a market with a population of over 1 billion people and a combined GDP of $US2,6 trillion. That is where we are focusing our attention. That is our number one priority, and we believe that that work is proceeding and advancing, and we are committed to ensuring that that work goes ahead. Thank you.