(Ecofin Agency) - The South African government launched today a new mechanism to improve the country’s export environment. The good news was reported by Lerato Mataboge (pictured), the Deputy Director-General of export development of the Trade Department.

The newly launched Export Barriers Monitoring Mechanism (EBMM) is designed to help local businesses overcome the barriers to exports more effectively and flexibly. It is expected to make the country more competitive in both the regional and international markets, especially in this tough economic context exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic.

The implementation of this mechanism is taking place amid the operationalization process of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Indeed the implementation of the AfCFTA was postponed to next year due to the coronavirus pandemic which has forced countries to close their doors and to set barrier measures, thus disrupting international trade. With the operationalization of the single market, African countries hope to recover more quickly from the crisis thanks in particular to an improvement in intra-continental trade.

“While our priority must be to work progressively to smoothen these barriers, the experience of the last decade of trade has demonstrated that we need to be prepared to manage this growing complexity.

Increasingly, a key component of global competitiveness will be how we manage a constantly changing global trading environment. Managing this environment will only be possible through a close working partnership between the government and the private sector,” Lerato Mataboge said.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou