The trading relationship between the European Union (EU) and South Africa is shaped by the Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) signed in 1999. Far from giving preferential treatment to an ex-colony, the TDCA actually imposes harsher liberalisation standards on South Africa’s agricultural exports than it does on Europe’s. Research from the University of Plymouth examines the protracted and acrimonious trade talks which led to the TDCA. Evidence drawn from interviews with key players in the negotiations suggests that European desires to please the World Trade Organisation (WTO) pre-determined the outcome. South Africa has had to adopt the neo-classical economic approaches which dominate the philosophy of development across the African continent.