The opening verse of The Flying Lizards’ song, Money (That’s What I Want), reminds us: “The best things in life are free.” But the band goes on and spoils it with “But you can give them to the birds and bees”, before breaking out in a chant that turns into a repetitive chorus: “I want money (that’s what I want).”

Fortunately, there is an international trade organisation – the World Trade Organisation (WTO) – that does not want your money for something, which, if you are involved in international trade, is a most valuable resource.

On July 2, the WTO released the World Tariff Profiles 2019, a 256-page publication that it compiled in partnership with the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The publication provides comprehensive information on the tariff and nontariff measures (also known as nontariff barriers, or NTBs) imposed by more than 170 countries and customs territories.

But before you think that it is just another international trade publication, it is supplemented with the addition of a dedicated portal, the WTODATA portal (https://data.wto.org/). This portal contains statistical indicators related to WTO issues. There is a time series that covers statistics on merchandise trade and trade in services, market access indicators (bound, applied and preferential tariffs) and nontariff information, as well as other indicators. The data retrieval functionalities include data selection, display and export, including available metadata.

The electronic copy of the publication is available free of charge, but, if you want a hard copy, then you would have to spend your coin with the WTO. Tariff statistics are presented in comparative tables and in one-page profiles for each economy. Statistics on nontariff measures by country and by product group complement the data on tariffs. There is a table containing import and export profiles, indicating the value of imports and exports for each country and customs territory and the average tariffs applied to these products. Then there is the special topic for this edition: ‘Aligning Trade and Tariff Policies with Sustainable Development’, which provides statistics on tariffs applied to technological goods that may assist countries in fulfilling certain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as SDG 3.9, which requires that, by 2030, there be a substantial reduction in the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination, and SDG 7.2, which calls for a substantial increase in the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.

This is quite simply an indispensable resource – a statistical publication coupled with a portal. The publication is divided into five parts, namely summary tables; country/territory tariff profiles; nontariff measures; special topic (aligning trade and tariff); and annexes. It covers both agricultural products and nonagricultural products, and, in the instance of nontariff measures, it covers trade remedies, namely antidumping and countervailing measures, as well as safeguards. It concludes with a section on references, technical notes and data sources.

The only positive reference of the three references to export(s) in the recent State of the Nation Address (SoNA) is: “We want a South Africa that doesn’t simply export its raw materials but has become a manufacturing hub for key components used in electronics, in automobiles and in computers.”

In case you were wondering as to what the other two SoNA export(s) references might be, they are: “Inflation further undermines the competitiveness of our exports and our import-competing firms, putting industries and jobs at risk” and “We will continue to reduce the cost of doing business by reducing port export tariffs, pursuing lowest-cost electricity generation options, and making rail transport more competitive and efficient.”

Import(s) are referenced twice, in the first of the two sentences above and then: “We are going to substantially expand the agriculture and agroprocessing sector by supporting key value chains and products, developing new markets and reducing our reliance on agricultural imports.”