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This economic and trade-focused column is prepared by Riaan de Lange – riaan@tariffandtrade.co.za. The views expressed in this column are the author's personal views

By Riaan de Lange

The poor and miserable simply cannot be let be

2nd October 2020

South Africa, and more especially its economy, is in deep trouble. When I find myself in similar circumstance, I recall the lyrics of the Beatles song, Let It Be: “When I find myself in times of... 


Knightian uncertainty

25th September 2020

The 1980s in South Africa might have been an idyllic time for some, but they were a period of discontentment for others. The mid- to late 1980s were my formative years for me. My most vivid memory... 


Hippopotomonstroses-quippedaliophobia

18th September 2020

If “the biggest word you ever heard”, as the song goes, is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, then you are in for a shock, as this piece’s title is longer. It is, in fact, one of the longest words... 


Monitoring export barriers

11th September 2020

It has been 81 years since World War Two (WWII) started – on September 1, 1939 – and, as you read this piece, just more than a week since the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC)... 


Existing together in a delicate balance

4th September 2020

Long before motivational quotes found fame on electronic media, at a time when ‘www’ meant little more than the Wild Wild West – in a World Without Windows, you could say – I was given an A3 page.... 


Swelling words of emptiness

28th August 2020

As South Africans, we tend to think that we have an intimate understanding of South Africa and how it operates. If this line of thinking is true, then our parents should be open books to us, but... 


Economics of corruption

21st August 2020

If there is a single topic that economists tend to avoid researching, it is corruption, which tends to be assumed to reside in the realms of political science and sociology. At a time where another... 


Promises make debt, and debt makes promises

14th August 2020

Let us start this week’s column with a truth, for at the moment, the truth is as scarce as a hen’s teeth. Truth be told, the title of this piece is borrowed from a Dutch proverb. If there is a... 


Trade facilitation versus protectionism

7th August 2020

In the instalment of this column published on July 3, which was titled ‘Protectionism on the increase’, I expressed my concern at the intensification of the protectionist mentality. Those old... 


We need to fix our education system

31st July 2020

Education is the single definitive Why is there a tendency to believe that the solutions for all our present economic ills lie in the present? Could this tendency be attributable to Albert... 


You’re on Mute!

24th July 2020

If only I could get a cent for every time that I have been on a ‘lockdown’ video call hearing someone saying “…, you’re on mute”, only for the person implicated to answer after an uncomfortable... 


Two economic hat-tricks

17th July 2020

Two economic hat-tricks A hat-trick is the achievement of a generally positive result three times in a game or in another endeavour. Well, not in this instance, I am afraid. But before we get... 


Slow train coming?

10th July 2020

On March 20, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the ratings of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Industrial Development Corporation rating, two of South Africa’s State-owned... 


Protectionism on the increase

3rd July 2020

Contrary to popular belief, economists are not oracles, and neither are they clairvoyants, even though they make frequent reference to their crystal-ball insights. They are mere trend spotters – no... 


Déjà vu as another SOE Council is announced

26th June 2020

To genuinely appreciate South Africa’s State-owned enterprises (SOEs) – the infamous 131 – while retaining a positive demeanour, it would be best if you were prone to regular bouts of amnesia. If... 


Internalise an external cost

19th June 2020

If you know nothing about sin taxes, then your salvation lies in the mere expression of the four words in the headline. Merely mentioning them will elevate you to the status of a tax expert, and... 


Misoneism

12th June 2020

This could well be the most apt one-word summary of government’s approach to the South African economy – a dislike of what is new or represents change. How else can one explain government clinging... 


End of print magazine era?

5th June 2020

In a world obsessed with extinction, where the instinct is seemingly to protect anything and everything from extinction, an extinction is seemingly occurring unnoticed in South Africa. Is the lack... 


A whole new world?

29th May 2020

“I can show you the world; Shining, shimmering, splendid; … A whole new world; A new fantastic point of view.” If only South Africa could emerge from its economic slumber, as the song from Disney's... 


Look mommy, there’s no plane up in the sky

22nd May 2020

What do the kakapo, the takahe, the weka, Comair, SA Express and South African Airways (SAA) have in common? The first three are flightless birds, and the latter three are on the verge of becoming... 


Fight, flight, freeze or fawn

15th May 2020

You might be more familiar with American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon’s flight-or-fight response, which describes a physiological reaction to a perceived harmful event, attack or threat to... 


Zombie economics

8th May 2020

A zombie is a spirit that wanders about the Earth, tormenting the living. Economics has its own zombies, as it does its own apocalyptic events, one of which is a recession. In addition to a... 


The economy in the time of Covid-19

1st May 2020

The title is that of the World Bank’s semi-annual report for the Latin America and Caribbean region, which was released on April 12. There is much for South Africa’s policymakers to learn from this... 


SA’s Fermi growth estimate

24th April 2020

We might well be living the Chinese curse – not Covid-19, but the interesting times that it will deliver. A global economic tragedy is inevitable, only its true extent cannot be determined. If “all... 


Nelsonian knowledge

17th April 2020

What do you understand the headline of this piece to mean? Hint: the phrase originates from across the ocean, where it was used by English judges. The Conglomerate of June 25, 2005, cites it in a... 


Three out of three is bad

10th April 2020

“Baby, we can talk all night; But that ain't getting us nowhere; I told you everything I possibly can; There's nothing left inside of here; . . . Now don't be sad; 'Cause two out of three ain't... 


Will the one C survive the other?

3rd April 2020

By March 21, most countries had introduced some form of enforced lockdown and/or self-isolation. The Gambler has just played his last hand. Of Kenny Rogers’s music, it is not Islands in the Stream... 


For whom the bell tolls

27th March 2020

As I heard the church bells toll on the evening of March 16 – which is when I wrote this piece – I was reminded of the phrase 'for whom the bell tolls'. It refers to the church bells that are rung... 


You break it, you buy it

20th March 2020

“Beautiful to look at, lovely to hold, but if you should break it, consider it sold.” This rhyme evokes memories of the terror I experienced as a youngster when I was about to enter a shop... 


Focus on tariff determinations

13th March 2020

The National Budget has always tended to be an uninspiring affair as far as customs, excise and international trade are concerned. Its focus tends to be limited to increases in the so-called sin... 


TFA – three years on

6th March 2020

The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO's) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), the first multilateral deal concluded in the WTO’s 25-year history, celebrated its third year of existence on February 22.... 


Stumbling from failure to failure

28th February 2020

To avoid embarrassing him, I will not mention the name of my economics professor from Eastern Europe who had a small bust of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, on his desk. Although,... 


Geographic indication in Brexit aftermath

21st February 2020

For as long as I can remember, my favourite meal, if it qualifies to be called that, has been a toasted cheese-and-tomato sandwich. I fondly recall many an afternoon at what was then Café 101,... 


Brexit: end of the beginning

14th February 2020

As I gazed across SW15, the postcode of the city famously known as London, at 00:01 GMT on January 31, Brexit – a portmanteau of ‘British’ and ‘exit’ – which signifies the withdrawal of the UK from... 


It’s time govt went back to basics

7th February 2020

During the week of January 20, the UK-Africa Investment Summit took place in London and the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. As I contemplated the two events from a... 


HS2022 edition launched

31st January 2020

The World Customs Organisation (WCO) announced on January 8 that the seventh edition of the Harmonised Commodity, Description and Coding System (HS) nomenclature, used for the uniform... 


2020: the year of the IMF bail-out?

24th January 2020

The year 2020 is the Year of the Rat. This is according to the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese believe that the rate signifies wealth and surplus. In South Africa, 2020 is anticipated to be the polar... 


It’s time to put South Africa Inc into business rescue

17th January 2020

To complicate something simply means to make something more difficult to deal with or understand. Why not simplify it? Take the South African economy and its performance – it is no more difficult... 


Variable outlook with persistent challenges

13th December 2019

We live in a world where words have been deprived of their original meaning. So accustomed have we become to seeing and hearing some words that they have lost their impact. We have become numb to... 


SOEs the worst they have ever been

6th December 2019

The above headline is part of a sentence in a report released by the Auditor General on November 20, which reads: “The overall audit outcomes of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are the worst they... 


It’s time to set South African Airways free

29th November 2019

You might have one schoolteacher or more who made an enduring impression on you. It might be something that they said or that they attuned you too. Although their name might have faded in memory,... 


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