Linda Ensor
30 June 2009
Johannesburg — THE Department of Trade and Industry is planning to review its trade, industrial and black economic empowerment policies, a move welcomed yesterday by Parliament's trade and industry portfolio committee.
The planned reviews were highlighted in a committee report tabled in Parliament yesterday on the basis of its engagement with Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies and departmental officials who said a review of trade policy would be concluded soon.
The review will cover trade performance over the past 15 years, changes of trade tariffs, recommendations for future tariff reform, new issues on the international trade agenda and SA's own trade priorities.
The committee report called on the department to adopt a "developmental model to guide trade policy", which it said should be implemented on flexible and pragmatic lines.
"The department indicated that the trade policy of opening the economy has not been effectively aligned with the support provided to industry.
"This has resulted in industries not being able to cope with the effects of the global market as they were exposed but had not become adequately competitive," the report said.
The committee agreed with Davies that the industrial policy action plan required "radical review if it was going to act as a catalyst to achieve its priority policy objectives", which included a higher growth rate, job creation and poverty eradication.
"Initially the industrial policy action plan focused on interventions that would yield quick gains, but in the light of the current economic environment, the department must build on the success of these industrial interventions by further developing (the plan) with stronger structural interventions," the report said.
The committee also welcomed the review of the implementation of black economic empowerment, which would aim at simplifying it.
The review would be undertaken by a yet-to-be-established black economic empowerment advisory council which was provided for in legislation.
The department also planned to collect its own data to analyse the effect of the policy.
The committee said the black economic empowerment policy had failed to achieve its broad- based objectives and had to be aligned with the government's procurement policies, particularly at local level.
Treasury officials told the finance committee they planned to align the preferential procurement framework with the Broad- Based Black Economic Empowerment Act. The revised regulation will soon be released for public comment.
The committee was also concerned about the department's incentive schemes for industry and asked for a report back.
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