Southern African bloc reviews ambitious free-trade plans
AFP
Southern African bloc reviews ambitious free-trade plans
Tuesday • October 24, 2006
Leaders of a 14-nation southern African bloc reviewed ambitious plans for a free-trade zone and common currency as it moved a step closer towards streamlining investment norms.
Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe became the latest members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to ink a protocol on trade and foreign investment, taking the number of signatories to 10.
The protocol, which will come into force after receiving the final seal of approval from half or more member countries, aims at having common investment, profit repatriation and tax incentive norms to create a level playing field in the region.
"The goal is to have macro-economic convergence and a high and long-term sustainable growth through cooperation rather than competition," said Timothy Thatane, finance minister of Lesotho, which currently holds the rotating chairmanship of SADC.
Eight heads of state and government attended the meeting near Johannesburg which was convened by the bloc’s chairman, Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili to review progress.
Mosisili said the bloc was on track on plans to have a free trade area by 2008. It plans to have a customs union by 2010, a common market by 2015 and a common currency by 2018.
He also emphasised that Zimbabwe, an international pariah whose economy is in serious decline with four-digit inflation and spiralling unemployment, should not be confused with the whole region.
"We should not be seen in the light of just one member state of the 14," he told a news conference after the summit.
Mugabe, who is shunned by the West over his controversial land reforms and for allegedly stifling democracy, meanwhile said the bloc was a continental model.
"SADC is one of the most dependable regional organisations of Africa and has a long, long history and track record of working together," he told reporters.
The gathering was attended by the presidents of Botswana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The tiny mountain kingdoms of Swaziland and Lesotho were represented by their prime ministers.
Senior ministers headed the other delegations.
SADC has set itself ambitious targets for the next 12 years, including an agreement to scrap tariffs on 85 percent of all goods by 2008, though this is way behind schedule.
A joint communique after the meeting however underlined that the bloc’s "trade patterns consist mainly of commodities and that there is a need to diversify the SADC economies and increase intra-regional growth and trade."
The region — apart from continental economic powerhouse South Africa and Botswana, the world’s biggest producer of diamonds — is blighted by endemic poverty. The AIDS pandemic is another common scourge for all member states.
SADC groups Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The SADC chairman alluded to squabbles over the proposed plans for tariff-free trade, urging member nations in a roundabout way to be more flexible.
"As we march towards the customs union, we need to remind ourselves that this process is a give-and-take affair," the Lesotho prime minister said.
He said the bloc would have to ensure to this end that "small economies will be catered for and benefit fully instead of just being dumping grounds for the bigger and stronger economies."
