The mapping of cross-border value chain flows between countries and regions can be of much assistance in understanding trade and production relationships. Cross-border value chains are flows of value between countries where ‘originating’ countries provide intermediate value to ‘exporting’ countries, which finally export the value. Analysing the relationships between originating and exporting countries, by sector, can assist in understanding the impacts of trade and industrial policy, as well as assist in designing new policy and extracting benefits from trade relationships such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

This Trade Brief introduces tralac’s value chain database; a million-row, stacked sector-country value chain database adapted from UNCTAD-Eora data, with originating and exporting country flows. The brief presents concepts relating to GVC data before describing the database itself, followed by some examples of possible applications of the database.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

Cross-border value chains are a form of trade in which intermediate value (whether product or service) passes from one country to another, to be beneficiated by the recipient country either for final export or export as beneficiated intermediate product. Since cross-border value chain participation allows specialisation of a component of the production process, without mastery of the entire production process, it is a potential entry point by developing countries into manufacturing activity that results in value-adding industrialisation. For this reason, analysing within the data can lead valuable insights about the potential entry points into value chains both between peers (typically regional value chains) and hierarchically (typically global value chains).

This brief follows on from a previous brief entitled ‘Introducing tralac’s value chain database’ (Stuart 2023). It is intended to showcase several applications of the use of the database, when integrated with additional data dimensions such as REC membership, sub-region, development status (LDC or not), export speciality, revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and export diversification. The data can be used to gain insights into trade and industrial policy formulation and implementation, especially in light of the unfolding African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

From the 22nd – 24th of August 2023, the BRICS, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, held its 15th Summit in South Africa. This was the third time South Africa hosted the group. The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) was initially formed with a focus on foreign investment strategies and held its 1st formal Summit in 2009. South Africa joined the group in 2010, and together, they became synonymous with fast-growing emerging economies. These emerging markets currently represent 43% of the world’s population and a third of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP). The BRICS countries, which in the early 2000s were considered to be the fastest growing economies, have not maintained this performance. Brazil, Russia, and South Africa’s economic growth has been sluggish, averaging less than 1% annually since 2013, while India and especially China experienced annual GDP growth rates of over 6% during the same period. The commodity shocks experienced in 2014/2015 had an impact on the economic growth trajectories of commodity-dependent member states such as Brazil, Russia, and South Africa. Furthermore, the BRICS differ considerably in demographic, economic, military, and political terms as well as in terms of their regional and global ambitions. Despite their unique characteristics, these nations must prioritize diversifying their economies and increasing the involvement of the private sector.

This Trade Brief provides an update on the trading relationship between the BRICS countries over the past decade with specific focus on South Africa’s position and performance. Additionally, it explores the development of the BRICS bloc and emerging issues, including the role of the New Development Bank (NDB), the expansion of the bloc, and the proposed currency as an alternative to the US dollar in international trade. The report concludes with a summary of its findings.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

The Trade Law Centre (tralac) in 2014 began monitoring and reporting on an annual basis the International Trade Administration’s (ITAC) tariffs and trade remedies investigations. The ITAC Act of 2002 and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Agreement, (2002) mandates ITAC to establish and manage an efficient and effective system for the administration of international trade for South Africa and on behalf of other SACU members (i.e., Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini). ITAC has conducted almost 200 investigations that tralac has monitored and reported since 2014, with most applications requesting tariff support largely in response to relatively low-priced imports mainly from emerging economies, such as China, Brazil, and India.

The objective of this Trade Report is to provide the latest information on investigations undertaken by ITAC for the 2021/2022 period. ITAC investigations cover primarily ordinary customs duties (applications for increasing or reducing import tariffs and rebates), trade remedies, and import and export control measures. It is important to note that ITAC investigations and decisions are informed by South Africa’s trade and industrial policy and that industrial policy inform trade policy. For this analysis, as in previous reports, import and export control investigations are excluded and therefore only focusses on tariff and trade remedies investigations and reports.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

This trade brief provides a snapshot of Algeria, Egypt, and Mauritania’s trade globally and within Africa (intra-Africa trade). For each country, a short summary of its membership to different regional economic communities is provided. The brief also looks at market access issues related to each country’s intra-Africa trade. A value chain analysis incorporating the three countries is conduction to explore potential value chains that the three countries can develop. All data is sourced from the International Trade Centre (ITC) TradeMap, the World Bank’s World Integrated Trading Solution (WITS) database. The trade brief is also accompanied by visual representations of the key data trends in an infographic for each country.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

South Africa’s latest trade policy formulation retains the clear connection between trade and industrial policy, noting that that trade policy instruments such as the import tariff are used selectively to support industrialisation objectives. South Africa is a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at the multilateral level; however, regional integration is an integral part of South Africa’s trade strategy.

This trade update focuses on South Africa’s trading relationship with select regional zones, regional economic communities (RECs) and select countries. More specifically, the brief will focus on South Africa’s trade with Africa, the European Union (EU), the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK). The review period is for the full year – 2021.

View the accompanying infographic

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, which have restricted the movement of people and lowered economic activity, has had a significantly negative impact on global economic growth. Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are, in particular, projected to be severely affected.

São Tomé and Príncipe is one such country, with a fragile economy which is therefore highly susceptible to external shocks. The remoteness of the island contributes to increased export costs, and the limited availability of land and a small workforce prevents diversification of the economy beyond a reliance on tourism revenues.

Although the island has seen some success in containing the spread of the virus, the major consequences to the country will not come in the form of cases or deaths, but rather from the severe economic consequences of a near absence of international travel and downturn in global economic activity. The threat to the tourism sector remains and will only get worse the longer international travel is restricted.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

At present, Africa is largely dependent on the rest of the world for automotive component imports, with the exception of the contribution of South Africa. In order to reduce dependence, deepen industrialisation and enable technology and skills transfer, Africa needs a continent-wide industrial policy logic for the automotive sector. This policy will include protection, investment and incentive provisions, but it must also feature an intelligent mechanism by which a potential regional value chain strategy could be developed. This mechanism must not just be based on the desire to distribute industry evenly across members but must be based on the actual and potential industrial and market strengths of member nations.

If continental liberalisation were to take place in the near future, almost all of the gains in this sector would accrue to one country – South Africa. A continental industrial policy for this sector could ensure that over the medium to longer term, the gains would be more evenly spread.

This Trade Brief makes use of a diverse set of data and analysis techniques to evaluate the status and future potential of the automotive components sector in industrialisation and trade in Africa.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

This paper employs both informal and formal analysis of panel trade and tariff data to determine the extent to which the gaining of preferential access to a market actually leads to increased trade volumes as a direct result. The two PTAs analysed are the EAC and the SADC, with imports into Uganda, from two new preferential trade partners; and South Africa, from six new preferential trade partners, the subjects of analysis. In both cases, the countries entering into preferential trade with an existing member of the PTA show eventually rising trade volumes directly as a consequence of acquired preferential access.

The lesson for the AfCFTA is that the rhetoric and the action have to align: to boost intra-African trade, preferential access has to be broadened within Africa and this requires intent. In addition, policy action that goes beyond narrow tariff liberalisation is also required.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.

An objective of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is to create a liberalised market for goods and services. To achieve this, the AfCFTA provides for progressive tariff liberalisation among state parties. This will add to existing intra-Africa tariff liberalisation, since regional economic communities (RECs) will continue to exist.

Currently, there are 13 RECs of which 8 are recognised by the African Union. There are also many bilateral trade agreements and ongoing liberalisation negotiations under the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA). Some RECs have no trade agreements in place; no trade agreement means no intra-REC tariff liberalisation. However, most countries are members of multiple RECs and bilateral trade agreements. This is a challenge for calculating existing intra-REC tariff liberalisation.

In this working paper we aim to establish where the AfCFTA can add to existing intra-Africa tariff liberalisation. In doing so, we address the following questions: What percentage of intra-REC tariff lines is liberalised? What is the composition of intra-Africa trade? Are intra-Africa imports mostly sourced from fellow customs union or FTA members? Are these imports mainly duty-free?

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.