South Africa and the United Kingdom have agreed to work towards doubling their two-way trade.

Trade and Industries Minister Rob Davies, who was part of a trade delegation accompanying President Jacob Zuma on his recent State visit to the UK, says before last year's global recession, the two-way trade was worth around R70 billion a year.

It has since dropped to R40 billion. Davies says the nature of trade should also be looked at. "From our point of view we expressed an ambition to change the composition of that trade because we still export principal primary products, mainly mineral products to the UK and we want to increase the percentage of products that have value added," says Davies.

Britain and South Africa have also signed a memorandum of understanding committing the UK to provide R80 million to help improve transport infrastructure.