South Africa and Brazil are looking to expand market access and address non-tariff barriers through existing preferential trade arrangements after bilateral trade reached about $2 billion (R32bn) in 2025.
Brazil remains South Africa’s largest trading partner in Latin America and its second largest in the Americas, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola said at the opening of the eighth session of the South Africa-Brazil Joint Commission this week.
“The SACU-Mercosur Preferential Trade Agreement gives us an existing platform to build on,” he said.
“This Joint Commission gives us an opportunity to explore ways to expand market access, address trade barriers and ensure this partnership fulfils its true promise.”
The two countries wanted to achieve a more balanced and diversified exchange of goods and services, Lamola said.
South African companies have established operations in Brazil’s pharmaceutical, technology, mining, financial services and chemical sectors, while Brazilian investors are active in South Africa’s automotive and food-manufacturing industries.
“South Africa offers Brazilian companies a gateway into a rapidly integrating African market of more than 1.4bn people through the African Continental Free Trade Area. Brazil provides South African companies with an important gateway into Latin America and the Caribbean,” he said.
The two governments are also working towards concluding an Agreement on Investment Promotion, Cooperation, Facilitation and Protection, although no timeframe for its conclusion has been announced.
The agreement would strengthen the framework for investment between the two countries, Lamola said.
Bilateral trade cooperation also includes a memorandum between the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, ApexBrasil, and South Africa’s Department of Trade, Industry and Competition.
Critical-mineral supply chains have been identified as another potential area of cooperation. Global demand for minerals used in the green-energy transition could quadruple by 2040, according to projections by the International Energy Agency.
Cooperation should move beyond extractive models and ensure that critical minerals support industrialisation, skills development and technological exchange in both countries, Lamola said.
