Developmental Regionalism and Regional Value Chains: Pitfalls to South Africa's Vision for the Tripartite Free Trade Area

Abstract

Regional integration via the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) received a significant boost when the South African parliament signed the corresponding agreement in October 2018. This article uncovers the convictions and objectives that drive South Africa's commitment to the TFTA. It reveals that South Africa sees the TFTA as a means of "developmental regionalism," which is expected to facilitate region-wide industrialisation based on value addition in regional value chains (RVCs). For this purpose, South Africa seeks to coordinate industrial policies within the TFTA and rehabilitate infrastructure jointly with the regional states. In addition to explaining the logic behind these goals, and analysing how far they have already been achieved, the article also highlights important challenges to South Africa's vision for the TFTA. It calls the prospects of developmental regionalism into question, being particularly sceptical about the way in which RVCs are conceived.

Regional integration in Africa: Proposals for an Africa-wide payment system

“…15 See UNCTAD (2013). 16 See Scholvin (2018) at 115-129 17 Ismail F "A call for a developmental regionalism approach to the African Continental Free Trade Area" (2020) 9 ECDPM Great Insights Magazine available at https://ecdpm.org/great-insights/africancontinental-free-trade-area-agreement-impact/developmental-regionalism-afcfta/ (accessed 16 November 2021). 18 See Faizel (2020).…”

Agro-processing, value chains, and regional integration in Southern Africa

“…Others take a more critical view, arguing that Southern Africa represents a protected market for South African goods and that South Africa is unlikely to support the relocation of production activities to neighbouring countries (Scholvin 2018). While South Africa's economic size provides a large potential market for the countries of the region, there is currently a significant trade imbalance, with South Africa dominating the supply of processed and manufactured products (Banga and Balchin 2019).…”

“…While South Africa's economic size provides a large potential market for the countries of the region, there is currently a significant trade imbalance, with South Africa dominating the supply of processed and manufactured products (Banga and Balchin 2019). It could further be argued that continental free trade agreements may be a way for South Africa to bring other African countries into a more protectionist continental arrangement that may limit the potential for regional value chains (RVCs) to link into global value chains (GVCs) (Scholvin 2018).…”