This paper characterizes the current SACU tariff structure, considers its rationale, proposes and evaluates some alternatives and offers some suggestions for reforming the SACU revenue sharing formula and regional trade strategy. While considerable progress was made until recently in...

Africa continues to be marginalised in world trade of manufactured goods, despite reductions in tariffs and non-tariff barriers. This paper investigates whether high business and trade costs associated with Africa’s trade-related infrastructure, trade institutions and the regulatory...

Significant declines in employment have coincided with trade liberalisation in South Africa stimulating many debates on possible causal relationships between the two. Existing research has, however, focussed on explaining employment trends rather than changes in the relative wage of less skilled...

Elasticities of demand and supply for South African manufactured exports are estimated using a vector error correction model in order to address simultaneity and non-stationarity issues. Demand is highly price-elastic, with elasticities ranging from -3 to -6. The price elasticity of supply is...

Integration into the global trading environment is viewed as a key factor underlying the success of the fastest growing economies. Yet many African countries remain isolated and appear to have failed to achieve the level integration of these fast growing economies. This paper presents a...

Unemployment among semi- and unskilled workers has reached severe proportions (over 50 %) and threatens the political and economic stability of the South African economy. In this paper a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the South African economy to assess the economy-wide impact of...

Using new detailed tariff data, wages disaggregated by skill level and firm level information, this paper ascertains the relationships between trade, technology and labour demand and investigates the effects of tariff changes on factor prices in South African manufacturing. We find evidence that...

This paper analyses the impact of Chinese competition on South African manufacturing exports to its major markets in Europe, the USA and Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper considers four related research questions. First, are China and South Africa competing with each other in export markets, how...

The rapid growth in imports from China over the past decade is seen as a key factor contributing towards the relatively slow growth in output and the decline in employment in South African manufacturing during this period. Yet the effects of Chinese trade may be complex and differentiated across...

Concerns that (1) growth in developing countries could worsen the US terms of trade and (2) that increased US trade with developing countries will increase US wage inequality both implicitly reflect the assumption that goods produced in the United States and developing countries are close...