SACU remain cautiously optimistic
There is muted optimism as the five-member Southern African Customs Union (SACU) prepare for their annual Summit of Heads of State and Government in Botswana’s capital city, Gaborone next week Friday.
Preparatory meetings of the SACU Commission on April 7-9 and the SACU Council of Ministers on April 10 will precede the Summit. The five member states- Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland go into this Summit confident of some measure of progress especially in the areas of trade facilitation. No doubt intra-trade between SACU member states remain unsatisfactory, but the implementation of an Action Plan as well as a regional Customs policy, according to SACU Executive Secretary Tswelopele Connie Moremi will provide “a guiding framework,” for regional cooperation. Among other areas of progress Moremi cites the development of a SACU strategy to deal with illicit trade in tobacco.There were many milestones including assistance helping in the setting up of national customs to business forums. In the transport sector “priority needs” have been identified, which shall support the development of a regional transport programme beginning this year. Yet another pressing need for the bloc has been the demand for reliable and easily accessible economic data. And to close this gap the Windhoek-based Secretariat has developed a SACU statistical database, which according to Moremi shall be the “central depositary for all kinds of economic data.” Not only shall it help inform policy development but also the database will be instructive in the areas of trade negotiations and as a monitoring tool for the performance of the economies of the Union. Moremi said the database would be launched during the 2012/13 financial year and will be available online. The development bodes well with international standards, A model of the database covering national accounts, consumer price indices, merchandise trade, monetary statistics balance of payments and government has been developed.
The Summit will be appraised of these developments as well as thrash out some of the most contentious issues that continue to dog the Union. These include the review of the revenue sharing formula, for which the Council of Ministers led by Botswana finance minister Kenneth Matambo has decided upon a “set of principles” to guide the negotiations for a new formula. No doubt every member state desires an arrangement that gives it a larger share of the Customs revenue, as can be attested by the continued fiscal consolidation by all SACU member governments in response to the lower receipts from the Common Revenue Pool. This explains the appointment of a Task Team at the level of SACU Commission to “oversee” the development of options for a new revenue sharing formula. The Task Team shall report progress to the Summit. On the international trade negotiations front, Moremi says they are pressing ahead with talks with India, United States and the European Commission, the latter talks under the ambit of the SADC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
This is particularly instructive in light of the envisaged transition of SADC to a Customs Union. In any case all SACU member states are also members of the bigger economic bloc, SADC. The SACU brings with it over 100 years experience in the administration of a customs union, and is actively involved in the negotiations for an ambitious tripartite free trade agreement between the Common Market for East and
