SAs Trade in Cultural Goods and Services - Report

Overview

This report sets out to examine the growth and structure of South Africa’s cultural and creative industries trade between 2007 and 2016, with a focus on the country’s trade with its BRICS partners. It makes use of the UNESCO (2009) Framework for Cultural Statistics to define the sector.

Like most smaller, open, developing countries, SA imports more cultural goods and services than it exports overall (a trade imbalance). Cultural goods exports accounted for 0.46% of South Africa’s total commodity exports in 2016, while cultural goods imports accounted for 0.66% of total commodity imports. However, cultural goods exports grew faster than cultural goods imports for much of the post-crisis period, reducing the country’s trade imbalance in cultural goods markedly, particularly in the most recent period.

Within the BRICS countries, South Africa has a trade imbalance with Brazil, India and China, and a cultural trade surplus with Russia, which is driven primarily by Cultural and Natural Heritage domain exports. The promotion of higher value added CCI trade with South Africa’s BRICS partners would fit well into the country’s current trade and industrial policy framework. Intra industry trade (IIT) is associated with greater value added manufacturing trade, and can be measured using an IIT index. Cultural domains that have significant trade values and also a higher level of IIT include Performance and Celebration, Visual Arts and Crafts, and Books and Press.

Although the main focus of this report was on trade in cultural goods, the “dematerialisation” of certain cultural products as a result of digital creation and distribution platforms is increasing the importance of cultural services trade. Cultural services exports were found to be important for the country in a number of sectors, and this should be considered in South Africa’s CCI strategy.