Tag: African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

South African businesses in the metals and engineering (M&E) sector have faced enormous challenges over the past few years, with the  pandemic compounding an already difficult situation. A shrinking domestic market, declining production, weak production sales, a smaller contribution to the economy, increasing joblessness, cheap imports and low investment levels are just some of the issues they face.

The rapid change in retail and trade networks caused by the global pandemic has highlighted how logistics – and air logistics in particular – is crucial to the economy. The first wave of lockdowns brought an urgent need for personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, gowns, and face shields, as well as sanitising products.

According to Peter Attard Montalto (head of Capital Markets Research at Intellidex) the violence and looting that took place in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in July 2021 cost the national retail sector R5 billion, 800 non-shopping centre stores were looted, 100 stores were burnt out, and 200 shopping centres were looted, and many destroyed. How can the country recover from such devastation - and when still enduring more than a year of lockdown and a pandemic? The answer must lie in economic and individual freedom.

With these words, a webinar on the new African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was launched to discuss the importance of assessing the current trade relations with Africa, and how the new agreement will enable them to build on this. The AfCFTA, which came into force this year, is the largest trade agreement in the world, and aims to double intra-Africa by 2022.