The Commission failed to reach a decision this week on whether Italian objections to the EU-South Africa free-trade deal should be allowed to hold up the ground-breaking agreement

Date: 13/01/2000

Rome argues that the trade pact, which came into force at the beginning of this year, fails to protect use of the term 'grappa'. However, Pretoria's Trade Minister Alec Erwin said Italy's last-minute concerns could not stand in the way of the accord.