This data analysis examines South African imports into India and Indian imports into South Africa. Data through to December 2005 is sourced from the respective countries using the World Trade Atlas data.

The paper begins by examining the importance of RSA to India by using their import data, and then examine the mirror of the importance of India to RSA. The analysis concentrates on using the respective partners’ import data, as this is generally more reliable than export data. Two points must be made here, though. The first is that imports are assessed using CIF (the value of the goods plus the costs of freight and insurance transporting them from the export dock to be unloaded at the import border) while exports are assessed as FOB (free on board, or the actual value of the goods at the export dock). This means that we are inflating the import value by including freight costs, and in the case of some bulk products, this is significant. The second point is that export and import values seldom if ever agree, and we will introduce a reconciliation exercise to explore some reasons for this, with the CIF versus FOB values one reason. All data is expressed in US dollars.

The study extends traditional trade analysis by looking at ‘trade chilling’ as defined where tariffs (or indeed other factors) may be repressing trade from RSA to India. This is achieved by looking at (a) where India is importing from the world but not from RSA and (b) where RSA is exporting to the world but not to India in these product lines, and importantly then (c) where tariffs may be a factor in this lack of bilateral trade. This can provide valuable information to policy makers.

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.