Zuma urges Sacu to tackle EPA negotiations as united front
Creamer Media’s Engineering News, South Africa
Zuma urges Sacu to tackle EPA negotiations as united front
By Christy van der Merwe
22 April 2010
Speaking at the 100th anniversary of the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) celebration held in Namibia on Thursday, President Jacob Zuma said that the future of the customs union was "undoubtedly in question", if it could not "pursue the unfinished business of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations as a united group".
In 2002, transformation of Sacu, which was regarded as a ‘colonial tool’ began, and a Common Negotiating Mechanism in Article 31(2) was put in place, to ensure a consultative decision-making process so that decisions would not be made by one member alone.
However, discord had emerged among Sacu member states on how best to approach negotiations with the European Union (EU) regarding the signing of the EPAs.
Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland signed the agreement with the EU, while South Africa and Namibia refused.
South Africa continued to trade with the EU under the Trade Development Cooperation Agreement, however Namibia had no formal trade agreement with the EU, and continued to trade under an agreement that had lapsed.
"We must remain true to our commitments particularly upholding Article 31, where we agreed to negotiate as a single bloc as a cardinal principle of our existence," stated Zuma.
This would be important if the policy and legal coherence of Sacu were to be sustained, he added.
Zuma also said that the Sacu member states must "look at how to strengthen the arrangement, how to eliminate all vestiges of colonial systems of domination and dependency, and how to operate within a changing geopolitical environment".
He further highlighted that the combined trade contribution of developing countries was 37% and increasing to 50%, thus the need to engage with this international reality to enhance Southern Africa’s collective development objectives.
"Developing countries had to ask how they could best position their political and external trade strategies?"
"We feel strongly that Sacu’s external strategy could include serious exploration of South-South cooperation, since this has excellent prospects for advancing our economic development," he added.
Another factor to consider, Zuma said, was that there was a drive towards deeper integration in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Sacu should decide how it would respond. "A new approach to regional integration should focus on building Sacu and SADC, principally, on the basis of common understanding and objectives with respect to a development-oriented regional integration," Zuma said.
He reiterated that commitment to action rooted in a common vision.
Such actions included the pursuit of an agenda that addresses member states complimentary and differentiated needs, and that they position themselves in the changing global economy, taking into account the imperative of South-South cooperation.
On the agenda for Sacu was to look at the unfinished business of establishing, streamlining and strengthening Sacu institutions, including the Sacu Tariff Board, Sacu Tribunal, Common Negotiating Mechanism, and the Secretariat.
"We need to ensure that there is a viable way for SACU institutions to operate effectively."
Another important part of the economic development agenda in Sacu was the harmonisation of various institutional arrangements, Zuma highlighted.
These included competition, agriculture, standard authorities; and dealing with behind-the-border barriers, ensuring closer customs cooperation, with respect to sharing of capacity for effective formulation and implementation of policies.
