January 25 (ANA) – South Africa and the United Kingdom (UK) have both committed to strengthening ties and to work together to identify trade and investment opportunities as the UK prepares to leave the European Union.
This was revealed when the Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies and the UK Secretary of State for International Trade, Liam Fox, met this week in London for bilateral talks.
The meeting was a continuation of the on-going high-level engagement between the UK and South Africa to discuss trade and economic relations and follows the recent visit of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to South Africa in December 2016.
The meeting was an opportunity for the ministers to discuss existing links as well as opportunities that will benefit not only UK and South Africa, but across the wider Southern Africa and Africa region.
In a joint statement, Davies said the UK is a historical and strategic trade and investment partner for South Africa.
Davies also said the UK remains a key market for especially agriculture exports accounting for over 20 percent of SA’s exports of wine and 30 percent of fruit exports globally.
“We must ensure that we have a predictable trade and investment environment for mutual benefit for both parties,” Davies said.
“As we work to achieve this, South Africa looks forward to discussing how our trade post-Brexit could build on the recently concluded Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU.”
South Africa is the third biggest trading partner for the UK in the Commonwealth.
Bilateral trade in goods and services between the UK and South Africa stood at £7.6 billion in 2015, with UK exports of goods and services increasing by 25 percent in the last decade.
South Africa’s exports into the UK have increased by over five percent on an annual basis for the last decade.
Fox said reiterated that South Africa is a key trading partner to the UK, a long-standing, strong and strategic ally for the UK in Africa and internationally.
“As we become an even more outward looking country, we will continue building on our relationship with South Africa and today’s meeting was an opportunity to discuss how we progress that,” Fox said.
– African News Agency (ANA)
