2010 too early for SADC customs union

The South African government is not in favour of establishing a Southern African Development Community (SADC) customs union by 2010 as envisaged in the development programme of the region. It wants to ensure that whatever is established suits the needs of the member countries and isn’t just a ‘must have’ to be ticked off the list. This is the official opinion of Njabulo Mbwewe, deputy director: SADC at the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), who spoke at the opening of the Inwent Trade Africa Intra Regional Export Promotion in Johannesburg last week. “Regional development and trade does not have to follow a linear path. We need to look at what is needed and focus on that. We already have a number of development programmes running in the region and need to establish and make a success of them before we can develop further. “We need to look at infrastructure development and finalise that first. After that we need to address the supply side of things. There is no point in having a customs union if the infrastructure doesn’t exist and member states do not have any products to export across the region or anywhere else. As much as we love our brothers across our borders we want them to have work at home,” says Mbwewe. He adds that there is also a problem with capacity and resources within the SADC: “The same people need to do everything from developing the free trade areas to looking after development programmes – there simply isn’t enough time for them to concentrate and make a success of everything else and then get a customs union up and running by 2010. “It took the EU almost 10 years just to decide on the currency they would be using; it is already October 2008 and it is impossible to have an SADC customs union finalised in less than two years. “The SADC customs union is a very noble idea, but let’s not rush things,” Mbwewe concludes.