The shipping industry is under pressure to reduce carbon emissions (they contribute 3% of global carbon emissions, about 20% the contribution of cow farts who let rip 14.5% of global emissions. Seriously). Taking inspiration from history, Cargill retrofitted one of their bulk […]
It is with some relief that only one new member of Brics has a name starting with a consonant or the new acronym would have been a nightmare. That disaster averted, XA will send a bottle of whisky to the first person […]
As many of you are aware, we launched our third Import Duty Investigations report on Wednesday (you can and should download the report here). ITAC responded with a media release of their own. I am not usually inclined to have these conversations […]
We tend to not think about population growth too much, because the changes are so slow. Until they’re not. Until very recently, human population has been growing and that assumption is baked into our economic theories, even when not explicitly stated. For […]
After a marathon 53 months (!!), ITAC eventually rejected Nature’s Garden’s application to increase the duties on frozen vegetables from 10% to 37%. Here is what happened. On 14 June 2018, Nature’s Garden filed an application with ITAC for the duty increase. […]
Saudi farms are exporting Arizona water back to Saudi Arabia Arizona is exporting alfalfa, a massive water consumer, grown on Saudi-owned American farms back to Saudi Arabia. This is happening because of the loose rules around water use in Arizona and because […]
On 15 June 2023, Minister Ebrahim Patel extended the ban on the export of copper and steel (except stainless steel and manufacturing scrap) for another six months. If you already have an export permit in hand, it would seem you can still […]
The Bloomberg article by Stanlib’s Ndihuvo Netshitenze materially overstates the risk of South Africa’s stance on Russia. I have been quite outspoken that our pro-Russia stance, aka non-aligned, is harmful to our economy and if anything my view on this has strengthened, but […]
Off to an inauspicious start, my very first Trade Brief, contained an error. I had stated we only had one primary steel producer (ArcelorMittal) benefits from import duties of 10%. This is only true for flat products, although Columbus is apparently starting […]
The US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben E. Brigety, accused South Africa of sending guns to Russia onboard the Lady-R, the suspicious embargoed Russian ship that sailed into Simon’s Town in December 2022 with its transponders switched off. I doubt South Africa […]