Mais je ne parle pas franais. [But I do not speak French.]
I want to answer a few points that have been raised by the hon members. Firstly, hon Hill-Lewis, once sufficient heads of state have signed the protocol, the operation to make it come into force is ratification, not more signatures. We are actually one of the countries first in the queue in ratifying this protocol. So, we are moving faster than our peers in the region to make this come into effect. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
Secondly, let me say that it is not true that we are not giving attention to and making progress in the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement, FTA. The architecture of the negotiation has been agreed. The level of ambition has been agreed and we are in the process of delivering and receiving offers and requests in the process. The negotiation is continuing and we are giving priority attention to that.
I now come to the hon James, who had made some points about the potential negatives with reference to education. I think it is important to point out that this Protocol on Trade in Services Protocol actually provides for negotiation on a positive list basis. That means that nothing is liberalised unless we explicitly agree that it should be. More than that, this protocol actually identifies six priority sectors for negotiation over the next three years. These are communications, construction, energy, finance, tourism and transport. So, that is where the negotiations are going to focus - on a positive list methodology.
I should say that we do attach importance to this. South Africa's services sector accounts for about 67% of our GDP, and our trade in services for 14,3% of our total trade. We are already quite active in the services trade in the SADC, in areas such as retail, banking, telecommunications and transport. So, we think that this protocol is important, important for our own commercial interests, but also important for regional integration.
Once this Protocol on Trade in Services has been negotiated, or the negotiation given rise to by the protocol proceed in the SADC, we will then have laid the basis for the next phase of the tripartite process. This envisages, in the next round after the negotiation of the trade in goods agreement, a trade in services agreement among the 26 members of Comesa, the East African Community and the SADC. I think that this is an important step forward in the process we are involved in.
Today I had the privilege of participating in the launch of the annual Trade and Development Report of the United Nations' Conference on Trade and Development. This report follows two other reports this year, which I also participated in - the World Investment Report, and then earlier, the Economic Development in Africa Report. These three reports tell us something very important about our economy, which we are actually trying to follow through.
Today the report told us that the state of the world economy is not such that developing countries can hope to develop and strengthen their productive sectors if they rely on trade with and exports to the developed world. The developed world is likely to remain flat in respect of its demand for goods and services from developing countries. Developing countries have to rely on the domestic and regional market as a tool for the industrial development diversification of their economies.
The second, the World Investment Report, told us that this matter of global value chains, which has been much debated, is seeing a greater blurring of the distinction between goods and services production. The issue for developing countries is not whether one is integrated or not in global value chains, but where one is integrated. For Africa and South Africa to be an exporter of primary products and an importer of finished goods is not the place we need to be located. We need to move up those value chains and become much more significant producers of manufactured goods and the services that go along with that.
The Economic Development in Africa Report said that Africa needs to pursue regional integration, particularly across our regional economic communities so that we can overcome the disadvantage created by colonialism, which divided us into 54 countries, each of which has got too small a market for its own domestic industrialisation. We have to come together; we have to pursue regional integration.
We are supporting this protocol energetically. We are one of the frontrunners in respect of negotiating it, and the reason it took a while to negotiate had nothing to do with South Africa. It had lots to do with technical questions raised by other member states. This is something which we are trying to push forward by being in the forefront of those that are ratifying this agreement.
I want to thank everybody for this. As has already been said, this Protocol on Trade in Services will support the National Development Plan. The NDP has identified trade in services as an area that deserves more attention and states that South Africa is not exploiting the opportunities. This will give us a chance to remedy that. I thank everyone for their support. [Applause.] Debate concluded.
Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Trade in Services approved.