Monday, June 26, 2006

WTO trade expert

At the end of this month out Trade and Industry Coordinator Sandile Roro will be leaving to join another organisation. I can already hear people wondering why I am mentioning this.

The reason is that when I first came to Nedlac had no idea about trade issues. I was anxious I would not have been able to understand issues if I was to sit in one of their meetings. So to prepare myself I read an article which had been written by Neva Makgetla in The Star about South Africa having to be careful about WTO tariffs, and non tariffs barriers.

I was wondering to myself what these terms could mean and I thought it would be an opportunity to have a one on one talk with Sandile where he would explain these nitty gritties and more to me.

I scheduled an appointment and went to him and he explained to me how the WTO works. The South African government’s including Nedlac’s role in the process as well as other countries involved in the process. I must say it was a very interesting “lecture” for the next time he came around asking for a scribe for the TIC strategic meeting that was held on June 8 at Sandton Towers and conference centre I was eager to go.

I was happy because what he had taught me made it easier for me to digest the dialogue that was going on between the four constituencies of Nedlac. My writing of one of the sessions also became easier. Terms like bilateral trade agreements, trade in services and others are now friendly terms. The organisation that has snatched Sandile from Nedlac is very fortunate to have him for according to me he is a sincere and hardworking person.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home