The International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) was established through an Act of Parliament, the International Trade Administration Act, 2002 (Act No. 71 of 2002), which came into force on 1 June 2003. According to the Act, ITAC’s aim is to foster economic growth and development to raise incomes and promote investment and employment in South Africa and within the Common Customs Union Area by establishing an efficient and effective system for the administration of international trade subject to this Act and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Agreement.

Over the past six years tralac, has been monitoring and reporting on investigations and reports prepared by ITAC that fall within its core functions. In our previous report we noted that over 130 investigations and reports were completed and that most applications for tariff support were the result of a still fragile global and domestic economic environment and were largely in response to relatively low-priced imports mainly from emerging economies.

In 2020, the coronavirus (COVID-19) disrupted the economic and trading environment and dented growth both locally and globally. Globally, COVID-19 has had governments worldwide implement new import and export measures as part of their health and economic responses. For South Africa, COVID-19 interrupted the rollout of the new industrial strategy. These, and other issues highlighted are discussed in this paper.

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