Foreign Trade Offices in South Africa
Usually if you are trying to get an idea of the success and importance of a country on a world-wide scale, you look to its economy as a guide. The amount and variety of goods that are imported and exported on a global scale are usually the most effective guide by which to measure the growth of an economy. Unfortunately for South Africa, the country has not always enjoyed good trade relations with other countries – mainly due to the apartheid government which not only restricted exports but which created such an unsavoury image for the country that imports were also somewhat restricted. Once aware of internal conflicts that the country faced, not many other countries wished to either support the South African government or get involved in such an unstable environment. Fortunately, that has all changed.
Since 1994, massive strides have been taken to help increase South African trade. Unfortunately much still has to be done to help the country to reach the same sort of growth experienced by most other developing countries, but that does not mean South Africa should be overlooked as a potential trade partner. Certainly, many countries have seen fit to do business with South Africa and you will find that a number of trade offices already exist in South Africa. Most of these are located in either Johannesburg or Cape Town but there are some exceptions. The Taipei Liaison Office, the Canadian High Commission Trade Office, the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise office and the Italian National Institute for Foreign Trade in Johannesburg are just a few examples of trade-related enterprises which should be contacted for trade advice when such advice is needed. Other examples are the US International Trade Commission Offices, the Australian Trade Commission, the Austrian Trade Commission and Ohio’s International Trade Offices.
Of course, if you simply want to find out how much trade South Africa enjoys with other countries, you need only look to the World Trade Organisation for the numbers. But if you want to take a deeper look into the import and export of various goods between South Africa and a specific country, it would be far better to contact the related trade office in South Africa. Doing so will help you to gain far more personalised insight into trade between your country and South Africa.