South Africa’s deputy minister of trade and industry Dr Rob Davies has called on the European Union to downscale its ambitions to include the ‘new generation’ or so-called Singapore issues in its economic partnership agreement with Southern African states before the end of the year.

These are considered inessential to the EPA and could be postponed without affecting the conclusion of negotiations on trade in goods, which could then meet the 31 December 2007 deadline Davies said. The Singapore issues include services, government procurement and investment.

Davies stressed that South Africa was not prepared to ‘roll over’ by accepting an agreement that would not meet the Southern African Development Community’s development targets.

Last month EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson accused the country of playing a negative role in the negotiations, saying that South Africa was preventing other countries that were less well off from moving forward.

Some of the SADC countries, such as Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland, are apparently eager to engage the EU on the Singapore issues, but Davies called the inclusion of these the biggest obstacle to the conclusion of negotiations.