SA needs to rely more on US trade than aid

To mitigate our youth unemployment crisis, school leavers should be digitally integrating into supply chains feeding the US’s import flows

11 February 2025 – 05:00

by Shawn Hagedorn

The world’s largest economy is by far the world’s biggest importer, particularly of manufactured goods, as — unlike the second, third and fourth largest economies — energy is a small component of US imports. Through high volume importing of finished goods the US creates many millions of jobs in other countries. 

Since the early 1990s the world’s rapidly developing countries have emphasised value-added exporting to the US. Conversely, most commodity exporting nations are poor. Providing raw materials creates few jobs and places countries at the low-development end of supply chains. SA’s top trading partner is China and, as we pay more for their finished goods than they pay us for commodities, we create Chinese jobs while undermining job creation here. ..

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