Prof Faizel Ismail

Professor Faizel Ismail is the Director of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town. He has a PhD in Politics from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom (2015); an MPhil in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex (1992), and BA and LLB Degrees from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (Pietermaritzburg) in South Africa (1981 and 1985).

Since July 2015 he has convened Post-Graduate and Masters level courses at UCT: on International Trade Law in the Faculty of Law; on International Trade Policy and Practice in the Graduate School of Business (GSB), and; on International Trade Negotiations and Global Governance in the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance.

He has served as the Ambassador Permanent Representative of South Africa to the WTO (2010-2014). He has served as the Ambassador Permanent Representative of South Africa to the WTO (2010-2014). He was the Chair of the WTO Committee on Trade and Development negotiating group (CTDSS) for two years (2004-2006), the Chair of the WTO Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) for one year (2006/7) and the Chair of the WTO Committee on Trade, Debt and Finance (WGTDF) for two years (2012-2014).

He was also South Africa’s Special Envoy on the South Africa-USA AGOA negotiations between January 2015 and June 2016. He led South Africa’s trade negotiations with SACU, SADC and the European Union since the beginning of the new democratic government in 1994.

He is currently serving a second term as Chair of the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) (2015 to 2023). The Secretary General of the AfCFTA appointed him as a convenor of the AfCFTA Trade and Industrial Development Advisory Council as from the 21st of January 2022. He is an associate editor of the Journal of World Trade.

Prof Ismail is the author of three books on the WTO: Mainstreaming Development in the WTO. Developing Countries in the Doha Round (2007) and Reforming the World Trade Organization. Developing Countries in the Doha Round (2009). His latest book on the WTO was published by the South Centre and TIPS: WTO Reform and the crisis of multilateralism. A Developing Country Perspective (2020). He has also published a book on the African Continental Free Trade Area: The AfCFTA and Developmental Regionalism. A Handbook. TIPS. Pretoria. April 2021 click here. He has published over 50 articles, chapters and working papers in international journals and books on trade and economic development issues.