Are exporters overly reliant on Brics?

South Africa’s trade policies are not sufficiently focused on new markets and there has been too much emphasis on trading with the Brics bloc – Brazil, Russia, India and China – according to business leaders. “There has been growth in exports out of South Africa to the Brics countries over recent years, but these emerging countries still have very protectionist policies in place and are therefore still very hard to access,” said Coenraad Bezuidenhout, executive director of the Manufacturing Circle. Peggy Drodskie, acting CEO of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci), added that one of the major challenges South African exporters would face over the coming years was a slow-down in the economic growth of the Brics countries. “As a result, there will be a slow-down in demand for commodities out of these countries,” she noted. Bezuidenhout told FTW that growing markets such as Africa, South East Asia and South America had not been properly targeted for trade agreements by government. “Furthermore, existing trade agreements with other traditional markets have not been nurtured and maintained, which has caused some agreements to fall away in favour of other countries that are actively courting them,” said Bezuidenhout. A further issue is that South Africa seems too focused on bilateral agreements and is largely ignoring multilateral agreements, which could provide access to a far larger market, commented Bezuidenhout. INSERT & CAPTION These emerging countries still have very protectionist policies in place and are therefore still very hard to access. – Coenraad Bezuidenhout