TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT
REFINING TRADE POLICY TO BOOST DEVELOPMENT
South Africa’s trade strategy seeks to grow its economy through national development objectives combined with policies to promote global and regional – especially African- wide – integration, says the nation’s Trade and Industry Minister. It is advocating the diversification of markets and products and the rebalancing of world trade to promote development in vulnerable countries as South Africa continues to move from exports dominated by raw materials to selling more value-added industrial goods.
Dr Rob Davies, MP, in Cape Town. Dr Davies is the Minister of Trade and Industry. He has been a Member of Parliament for the African National Congress since 1994. He has led South Africa’s delegation to the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)-European Union, has served as ACP Co-Vice-President for Human Rights and was a member of the Eminent Persons Group of the Global Coalition for Africa in 2003. He holds a doctorate in political studies and degrees in international relations and economics.
This page: The growing industry along Cape Town’s shoreline. Right: The South African motor industry creates much needed jobs.
Dr Rob Davies, MP
Although South Africa has made significant progress in addressing many of the social and economic deficits inherited from apartheid, the country still confronts many socio-economic challenges, notably continuing high levels of unemployment and severe inequality. The National Development Plan (NDP) as adopted by the South African government provides a long- term strategic perspective and plan to address the above challenges. In
22 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One - South Africa
support of the NDP, the New Growth Path (NGP) aims to accelerate economic growth along a path that generates sustainable, decent jobs for all South Africans. The National Industrial Policy Framework (NIPF), implemented through the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP), is a central component of this strategy. The NIPF and IPAP seek to encourage and upgrade value-added, labour- absorbing industrial production and diversify the economy away from its over-reliance on commodities and non-tradable services. Trade policy can make a
meaningful contribution to this new growth path by supporting South Africa’s industrial development and upgrading, employment growth and increased value-added exports. Trade policy provides both a tool for promoting sustained economic development and a mechanism through which we can define the terms and conditions for our integration into an increasingly
dynamic and competitive global economy.
Given our developmental challenges, South Africa requires a more strategic approach to global integration, which seeks to preserve the policy space necessary to pursue our national development objectives while leveraging the benefits of more integrated regional and global markets.
Simplifying tariff policy Successful developing economies have adopted a strategic approach to their global economic integration. They have ensured that trade policy is informed by industrial policy and that, where trade liberalization is undertaken, it is gradual and selective in order to support industrial development.
By contrast, many developing economies that embarked on rapid structural reform, including uniform and across-the-board liberalization, have tended to re-orient
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