South Africa

Trade policy-making is a complex affair. In all countries a host of factors influence the outcome with the mix varying according to domestic circumstances and the relationship of the country concerned with the global economy. As the introductory chapter of this book attests strictly state-centric explanations regarding how trade policy decisions are made are no longer sufficient in a world where international trade negotiations increasingly impinge on domestic policies. Therefore a nuanced understanding of how trade policy is made is required and must interrogate the roles of non-state actors (NSAs) institutions and ideas and their interactions with each other in shaping preferences and policy.

Public procurement is extensively used in South Africa as a tool to achieve horizontal policies – that is policies that are not necessarily directly connected with the functional purposes of the goods works or services acquired in the procurement. The most pervasive of these policies are the social-policy-underlying mechanisms to redress inequalities in the South African economy created by colonization and apartheid. This policy of economic redress in favour of previously disadvantaged groups generally known as black economic empowerment (‘BEE’) forms part of the larger project of constitutional transformation in South Africa which informs the entire government agenda. In public procurement specifically the primacy of this policy is reflected in the constitutional mandate for BEE mechanisms in procurement. The policy of BEE is so pervasive that it has also found its way into private procurement in South Africa through the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act (‘BBBEEA’). The South African system thus provides an interesting example to test the ‘fit’ of the WTO’s Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) in a context where social policy plays a major role in shaping procurement practices.

The South African economy is one mired in a long-run low-level growth trap which has entrenched high levels of structural unemployment. Further and as is the case with many middle-income economies it has struggled with the domestic consequences emanating from a variety of exogenous economic shocks. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of contagion effects from the 2008 global crisis and trade-induced shocks – within a world economy that is increasingly defined by its interconnectedness. For South Africa the real economic impact has been most powerfully felt in the labour market with current and future employment threatened through these shocks. Thus the combination of high levels of structural unemployment and the adverse labour market effects associated with exposure to global shocks has necessitated the design of appropriate and effective labour market responses.