South African organisations could soon be sourcing more goods from southern hemisphere countries, taking advantage of the south’s trade possibilities during Europe’s economic crisis.
South Africa could increase its commercial ties with countries such as Brazil at the expense of trade with traditional partners such as the European Union (EU), said trade and industry minister Rob Davies.
“We’ve deployed a great deal of our effort to the huge number of possibilities for south to south trade,” Davies told a news conference in June.
Although the EU remains South Africa’s biggest partner, falling trade in the economic region means the country has to diversify and seek alternative partners.
Further to looking to trade with big emerging nations, South Africa’s aim is to find ways of collaborating to fill-in the gaps in each others’ economies, said Davies.
Services, environmental goods, fishery subsidies and agricultural and manufactured goods are areas that could benefit from southern hemisphere trade, he concluded.
In 2008 sub-Saharan Africa took 77% of the $162-billion trade between the Bric nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and Africa, reports Standard Bank.
