The main goal of the current report is to analyse the structure and performance of South Africa’s cultural goods trade with the European Union (EU) for the period from 2010 to 2018, with comparisons to updated cultural goods trade with BRICS partners and
This report forms one chapter of the SACO 2020 CCI Mapping Study. The main goal was to analyse the structure and performance of South Africa’s cultural goods trade with the European Union (EU) for the period from 2010 to 2018, with comparisons to trade with BRICS and the rest of Africa. The choice of the EU as the focus for this report is because, along with the rest of BRICS, Africa and North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) countries, the EU is one of South Africa’s most important cultural trading partners.
Like many small, developing economies, South Africa has an overall cultural good trade deficit, with the value of cultural good imports being more than cultural goods exports. However, cultural goods exports have grown faster than exports of other goods, while cultural goods imports have declined. The cultural trade deficit has fallen dramatically since 2012. In 2018, South Africa’s cultural goods exports were valued at US$446.5 million, while the value of cultural goods imports was US$469.8 million.
The Visual Arts and Crafts domain makes up the largest share of South Africa’s cultural goods exports, and in this domain the value of exports is more than the value of imports. The Cultural and Natural Heritage domain also has a trade surplus. The largest share of South Africa’s cultural goods exports go to NAFTA (33.2%), followed by the rest of Africa (23%), rest of BRICS (22.1%) and the EU (15%). The largest share of South Africa’s cultural goods imports come from the rest of BRICS (39.5%) and the EU (24%). In 2018, China was the single most important cultural goods trading partner for South Africa, accounting from 21.5% of the country’s cultural goods exports and 36.3% of cultural goods imports.
Based on 2016-2018 averages, South Africa’s cultural goods exports to the EU were US$75.4 million, with cultural goods imports at US$126 million, yielding a trade deficit of US$50.6 million for this period. The most important EU cultural goods trading partners for South Africa are the UK, Germany and Italy. South Africa has cultural goods trade deficits with the UK and Italy, but a cultural goods trade surplus with Germany. Between 2010 and 2018 cultural goods trade as a share of total bilateral trade increased for South Africa’s exports to the EU but decreased for imports from the EU as a result of the rising share of imports of cultural goods from China.
The most important domains for South Africa’s cultural exports to the EU are Visual Arts and Crafts and Performance and Celebration. On the import side, Books and Press and Visual Arts and Crafts are the most prominent import domains from the EU, and from the UK individually. In recent years, important export categories to the UK, Italy and Germany within this domain have included jewellery and fine art. Interestingly, South Africa also imports jewellery of various kinds from Italy.
Although SA has a cultural trade deficit with the world in Performance and Celebration, it has a cultural trade surplus in this domain with the EU. This could be an area for export promotion with EU countries which could in turn reduce the country’s overall deficit in this domain. While South Africa has an overall trade surplus in Visual Arts and Crafts, it has a small trade deficit in this domain with the EU. The trade flows in this domain are relatively significant and South Africa should both promote trade and possibly be more defensive in this sector. For the regions analysed, South Africa's intra-industry trade index is highest with the EU at 27.3%, followed by the rest of Africa at 25.9% and BRICS at only 5%. In domains with significant trade flows, IIT is notable in Visual Arts and Crafts with the EU and the rest of Africa, Books and Press with Africa and, to a lesser extent, Performance and Celebration with the EU. Under current trade agreements, the EU currently has a significant margin of preference in CCI trade with South Africa over i) BRICS partners, and ii) non-SADC African trading partners. However cultural imports from SADC enter the country duty-free under the SADC FTA.
South Africa performs comparatively well in a number of services sectors that are important for cultural services trade. These include “Personal travel services”, “Advertising and market research services”, “Audio-visual and related services”, and “Other personal, cultural and recreational services”.
