The historical geography of the southern african development community's sugar protocol

Abstract

but private enterprises produce and distribute the traded goods. Numerous complex relationships are covered by this simple observation, including the bonds of principle that unite signatories, the diversity of participation and potential among signatories, and the possibly contra- dictor~ interests between and among governments and enterprises. The Southern African Development Community's (SADC) sugar trade protocol is a case in point. The SADC comprises fifteen states, ten of which produce cane sugar and seven of which are net exporters of the product.1 South Africa's is by a long way the ma- jor sugar industry of the regional bloc, followed by those of Mauritius and Swazi- land. The three smallest sugar industries are those of Congo (which has only a very small production capacity), Angola (whose war-ravaged sugar industry is current-