Export councils could play a more active role in helping remove bottlenecks and entry barriers to export markets.

These councils could lobby government to speed up the flow of goods through borders by implementing more efficient processes, improving infrastructure, and promoting South Africa – worldwide – as a prime exporter.

They should also be urging government to form public-private partnerships to create more export processing zones, such as at the Coega IDZ, which is located within the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality near Port Elizabeth and covers 110 km2 of land.

Duties are not payable on raw materials that are shipped directly to a manufacturer within the IDZ and the products produced from them are shipped directly out again to be exported. This speeds up the process of exporting goods, involves less administration, and reduces costs.

An example of getting this right can be found in Dubai, which has become the gateway to the Middle East by creating efficient export processing zones. Many other countries are also benefiting from developing such zones.

Barriers to entry
Another important role export councils could be playing is to lobby the World Trade Organisation to remove prohibitive taxes and subsidies that protect the local markets of many countries. For example, it is difficult to export South African wines into countries that produce their own wine due to protective taxes and subsidies.

Other barriers preventing exportation include sanitary regulations that preclude certain materials from being used in the manufacture of goods. There are also other regulations that apply to the exportation of fresh produce. For example, fruit being exported to Europe needs to go through treatment processes to ensure it does not contain insects, and seeds and grains need to be treated to ensure they will not germinate.

It is understandable that governments need to protect the environment of their countries, but regulations like this are often used as an excuse to restrict the importation of goods. Export councils should be identifying barriers to entry like these and lobbying governments to remove them.

The bulk of exported goods produced in South Africa are currently shipped to Europe, the USA, and China, with resources representing the highest volumes, followed by other types of goods, such as fresh produce, wine and motor vehicles. There is vast potential to increase export volumes to overseas destinations and into Southern Africa, with export councils playing a more active role in promoting South Africa as a quality producer.

Barriers to growth in exporting South African products to African destinations include inefficient customs processes and poor customs controls, which result in long queues of trucks being stuck at borders for hours. Export councils should lobby governments and customs authorities to improve border control processes; this would result in less queuing and faster clearance, which would ultimately reduce the temptation for corrupt activities.

Alternative modes
The only cost-effective alternative to road transport into Africa currently is to ship goods by sea, which takes longer and is often not feasible when delivering to customers in landlocked countries. In these cases, the goods may have to be transported by road for several hundred kilometres, from the port to the customer.

When the roads are in poor condition, it costs more to maintain the vehicles and takes longer to reach the destination. Export councils should be more actively lobbying African governments to develop public-private partnerships to build less costly transport infrastructure such as railways.

Most of the existing railway infrastructure is owned by parastatals and is not a viable alternative to transporting goods by road. Another problem is that gauges on railway tracks differ from country to country and therefore, require different types of locomotives and carriages.