Government wants to see more cargo moving across the country’s borders.
President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address touched on a number of trade-related areas.
KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape will have InvestSA One Stop Shop centres to help speed up investment.
“There must be no undue delays and no unnecessary red tape. From issuing licences to visas, we should make it easy to do business in South Africa,” said Zuma.
On cross-border trade Zuma said South Africa would use its chairmanship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) from August 2017 “to fast-track the implementation of the SADC Industrial Strategy.
“We are accelerating the integration agenda through the implementation of SADC-COMESA-East African Community Free Trade Area.
“The Southern African Customs Union Mercosur Preferential Trade Agreement has also entered into force, providing preferential access to over one thousand tariff lines. This is an agreement that promotes South-South trade.
“Furthermore, trade with our traditional partners in the west remains a significant contributor to our economy,” he said.
According to Zuma the Economic Partnership agreement with the European Union (EU) which came into force in September 2016 provides 99% of South African products with preferential access to the EU.
About 96% of the products will enter the EU market without being subjected to customs duties or quantitative restrictions.
In addition, “we will continue to partner with the United States and work together on issues of mutual interest such as the full renewal of Agoa”.
China enjoyed special mentions in a number of parts of the speech. “We value our relationship with the People’s Republic of China.”
Zuma emphasised that the South African government supported China’s inclusion of Taiwan – a policy that may have an impact on trade between Taiwan and South Africa.
Farmers will be among the beneficiaries of the Chinese relationship.
Offtake agreements with BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) include the export of pulses, mangoes and pork to India.
“We will also export 20 thousand tons of beef to China per year for a period of 10 years,” he said.
