President Cyril Ramaphosa has outlined how South Africa hopes to leverage the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to support the country’s reindustrialisation.

Speaking at the ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development Summit under way in Japan, Ramaphosa said South Africa was seeking to deepen intra-African trade while becoming a “continental industrial platform from which Japanese and other global firms can export into Africa”.

“We are actively working with the AfCFTA Secretariat to finalise value-chain protocols in automotive, agro-processing, pharmaceuticals and textiles.

“We support Rules of Origin harmonisation to encourage manufacturing in Africa and the upgrading of border infrastructure to enable faster movement of goods,” he said, adding that South Africa’s reindustrialisation agenda was focused on localisation, green energy and regional integration.

Speaking against the backdrop of the imposition of 30% ‘reciprocal tariffs’ on South African exports to the US, Ramaphosa urged Japan to ease market access for African goods.

“Recent tariff actions by the United States on African goods have highlighted the need to diversify our export markets.

“South Africa is a leading exporter of agricultural produce and high quality industrial products such as auto vehicles and components.

“We call on our Japanese counterparts to support tariff cooperation to ease market access for African goods,” Ramaphosa said.