Barriers to business between Angola and South Africa appear to be crumbling following an announcement by the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) that the oil-rich nation has finally ratified the South African Development Community’s (SADC) Trade Protocol.
The announcement that Angola had at long last acceded to SADC’s demands for eased trade relations was made on the side-lines of a five-day long mission to Luanda, led by the dti and attended by 20 delegates from South Africa.
Deputy Trade and Industry Minister, Bulelani Magwanishe, said that Angola was one of South Africa’s fastest-growing export destinations in SADC and that Angola’s accession to the protocol would not only improve trade and enhance harmonisation of customs processes, but would also contribute to regional integration efforts.
According to Magwanishe current trade barriers include the inability of local commercial concerns to “repatriate investment and dividends to South Africa as well as high import duties and tariffs.”
Not only is it hoped that the neutralisation of such stumbling blocks will pave the way for increased investment between the two countries, but that it will also address additional barriers to trade.
The Secretary of Commerce for Angola, Dr Anadeu Leitao Nunes, said his country welcomed the assistance that South Africa had pledged to Angola, particularly with technical capacity development and eradicating language barriers.
Stepped up trade relations between South Africa and Angola could only be welcomed, Africa House’s Duncan Bonnett said.
“We haven’t been doing much business with that country and should really be trading with it at much higher levels.”
Nunes said Angola’s turnaround from previous prevarication to come on board with SADC’s Trade Protocol, “was an instruction from President João Lourenço.”
Despite opposition from business interests that have fallen out of favour since the oil oligarchy of former President José Eduardo dos Santos collapsed, “there is no turning back for Angola,” Nunes stressed.
