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Navigating international trade and tariffs
Recent tariffs and other trade measures have transformed the international trade landscape, impacting almost every sector, region and business worldwide.
Global | Publication | February 2018
Concerns regarding resource nationalism reforms are a regular topic within the mining industry and international mining conferences, such as the African Mining INDABA currently ongoing in Cape Town, South Africa, are often the perfect venue for these concerns to be openly expressed and discussed.
Over the past few years, several African countries have substantially overhauled their mining laws, although some have worked harder at affording stability protection to those miners that had believed in their country (often during difficult times) and massively invested to develop world-class mining projects.
Whilst Tanzania’s recent legislative changes will be much discussed this year, by voting a major revision to its mining code on 27 January 2018, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Parliament has positioned the DRC centre stage on this subject.
The DRC mining code revision process which started in 2012, some 10 years after the Code was originally adopted, has finally led to a bill that was approved by both houses on 27 of January 2018.
The bill is ambitious and challenging.
The text is awaiting some “tidying up” before being put to President Kabila for promulgation. Such clarification would be useful as several provisions seem at this stage unpractical, unclear or possibly inconsistent. Mining companies and investors will also be concerned about the economic and practical impacts of the changes. If promulgated ‘as is’ the bill will not only increase future investors’ obligations but might also be read as immediately impacting current operations and existing rights.
Some of the key changes to the mining code would include:
These are only a few of the changes which the revision is introducing. Given its complexity, further analysis of the text and its impact on individual operations will be needed. However, to the legal professionals who have followed the evolution, over the past 10 years, of the mining legislative and contractual framework in Africa’ major mining hubs, it seems already clear that significant efforts on the part of the Government, mining companies, financiers and their respective advisors will be necessary to address the consequences of this bill if it is implemented in its current state.
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Recent tariffs and other trade measures have transformed the international trade landscape, impacting almost every sector, region and business worldwide.
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Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa is acting on behalf of the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) in its application to be admitted as an amicus curiae in the ongoing High Court litigation regarding the state’s failure to prosecute apartheid-era crimes.
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