World Bank recommendations that South Africa should deepen regional integration and build regional value chains were broadly aligned to South African government policy and work programmes, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) chief director of policy and research Dr Brendan Vickers said on Thursday.

South Africa’s export competitiveness was examined in the World Bank’s fifth ‘South Africa Economic Update’, which was released on Tuesday.

According to the report, sub-Saharan Africa had surpassed Europe as the biggest export destination for nonmineral export from South Africa in the past decade, and for South Africa to achieve export growth it had to take advantage of the three opportunities of increased competitiveness, lower trade and input costs, and greater regional integration.

“The recommendation related to deepening regional integration in Africa is fully recognised and being addressed in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Southern African Customs Union and now under the Tripartite Free Trade Area,” Vickers said.

He added that negotiations on trade-in services in SADC were beginning to gain traction, adding that there was work under way to address nontariff barriers and trade facilitation and to begin building regional value chains.

“The argument that South Africa is overly protected against imports is hard to sustain as South Africa’s trade weighted average tariff is 7.4%, while 54% of tariffs are set at zero. We are extremely open to many of our largest import partners from the European Union (EU), the European Free Trade Area and SADC countries,” he emphasised, adding that there were already 2 000 firms from the EU and 600 from the US plying their trade in South Africa.

Vickers also explained that South Africa’s economic history demonstrated that the country’s relative success in exports of medium-level technology goods had not been a result of import liberalisation but of prior and ongoing industrial policy.

“In assessing South Africa’s export performance, we also need to consider demand conditions in our export markets,” he said.