Over the past decade both exports and imports have increased relative to GDP, as can be expected as part of the process of globalisation. South Africa's authorities have added momentum to globalisation by phasing in lower import duties in terms of the World Trade Organisation agreements.
See also FAO, IFAD, IMF, OECD, UNCTAD, WFP, the World Bank, the WTO, IFPRI and the UN HLTF (2011), Price Volatility in Food and Agricultural Markets: Policy Responses, OECD Publishing, Paris. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  Looking at cross-country data, it is clear that higher-income countries consume much larger quantities of meat and sugar per person than do lower-income countries (Graph 3).