The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is focusing on the achievement of an umbrella customs union for the 14-member states by 2010, and the matter of monetary regional integration has received “a high level of attention” at its most recent meeting, South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa said on Friday.
The SADC heads of state and government met in Maseru, Lesotho last week.
Speaking at a media briefing — after a South African government delegation including President Thabo Mbeki met the Big Business Working Group at Tuynhuys — Mpahlwa said that the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) was already a customs union in the region and the issue was whether a proposed regional customs union would be “Sacu plus one, and then another one” or is it to be an entirely new body?
This is an example of the issues which are now being taken up by regional trade and finance ministers, he said.
Noting that the matter had not been discussed with the Big Business Working Group, the minister said the ministers will deliver a report to the next SADC summit, which will be held early next year.
The SADC is also concerned about the fact that in negotiations over trade with such entities as the European Union, some of the SADC member states are also members of other economic entities.
One example is the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, which includes SADC members Malawi, Zambia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The other SADC members are South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania.
According to the South African Department of Foreign Affairs’ website, the Southern African Customs’ Union came into existence on December 11 1969 with the signature of the customs’ union agreement between South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland. It entered into force on March 1 1970. It is the oldest customs’ union in the world.
It aims to maintain the free interchange of goods between member countries. It provides for a common external tariff and a common excise tariff to this common customs area. All customs and excise collected in the common customs area are paid into South Africa’s national revenue fund.
The revenue is shared among members according to a revenue-sharing formula.
South Africa is the custodian of this pool. — I-Net Bridge