Europe trade pact gets official nod

ALAN PEAT WITH A formal flourish, the general free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) countries was signed on July 1 in Geneva. It was the official launch of an agreement that will link EFTA members Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland with the Sacu bloc of SA, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland in a deal designed to liberalise trade in industrial products, processed agricultural products, fish and other marine products. According to Wian de Bruyn of customs and trade consultants, Deloitte, the agreement will only come into force early next year (2007). “All the local legislation will need to be put into place before the FTA can come into effect,” he told FTW. Also, SA Revenue Service (Sars) customs will still have to publish all their own internal rules and regulations. And, De Bruyn added, importers and exporters will have to wait until then before the list of new tariff amendments – and the product categories to which they are linked – will be revealed.