SA chains awaiting AfCFTA clothing and textile rules of origin decisions

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA - South Africa’s chain retailers are waiting – in some cases, apparently, impatiently – for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to finalise its rules of origin for textiles and clothing ahead of the June deadline set by the AfCFTA Council of Ministers.
      “Onshoring is a very strong ambition for retailers for 2 simple reasons,” said National Clothing Retail Federation of SA (NCRF) executive director Michael Lawrence: “The cost of shipping, and quicker response times.
      Recently back from a CRALAC conference in Rwanda on the AfCFTA, where the NCRF was “keeping a watching brief”, he said onshoring “should be providing huge opportunities for value chains across the continent, and these are areas that are very good for everyone, but it’s a very technical process these days.”
      He said retailers “can’t speak on which rules of origin should be applied”.
      “It’s for the production side to tell us how they will operate, and then retail can make decisions, but until that happens, retail can’t make purchasing decisions, regardless of the developmental or commercial opportunities identified.”