Establishment of SADC customs union back on the agenda

The establishment of a Customs Union (CU) is back on the table and a new target date will reportedly be set at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) 2015 Ordinary Summit to be held in Gaborone, Botswana on August 17 and 18.

SADC director of policy, planning and resource mobilisation, Dr Angelo Mondlane, said that although the original 2010 target had not been met, “significant progress” had been made towards regional integration efforts with all but two of the SADC members now part of a Free Trade Area (FTA).

According to Mondlane, there are numerous reasons why the original target was not met, which include overlapping membership, with some SADC countries belonging to multiple organisations such as East African Community (EAC) and Comesa. Under the envisaged SADC CU, a country can only belong to one union.

“But this does not make the establishment of the SADC CU a mission impossible. Significant regional integration initiatives have already been accomplished apart from the formation of the FTA. We have started negotiating for free movement of services, while a regional payment system linking SADC central banks is now in place,” he said.

Under the original target, a regional central bank and a common currency were expected by 2018.