New body will oversee trade agreements

Replacing Board on Tariffs and Trade Leonard Neill THE NEW Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) agreement, aimed at correcting imbalances which existed in the previous 100-year-old agreement, will become law once it has been ratified by the parliaments of the member nations, says Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin. The agreement was signed by leaders of BLNS member states - Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland along with South Africa - in Botswana on Monday. It will usher in a more balanced trade agreement between states which had operated under a customs agreement for longer than any other regional group in the world, says Erwin. He has described it as 'by far the most advanced form of economic integration on the African continent.' The long-standing agreement often favoured South Africa when it came to regional tariff structures, revenue sharing and anti-dumping measures, he said. The new agreement makes for a fairer deal for all, as some of the states rely heavily on the common customs revenue pool for their national budgets. But Erwin has warned that the International Trade Administration Bill, now before the South African parliament, will provide for the creation of the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac), which could bring certain problems for business in general. Itac will oversee the implementation of the Sacu agreement as well as other multilateral and bilateral trade agreements. As such it might not initially be faster than the Board on Tariffs and Trade, which it replaces, in making decisions on tariff-setting and anti-dumping moves. Business in general might become concerned at this type of delay, he said, but he believed that Itac would provide greater certainty, replacing the former decision-making process, which often depended on lobbying. It would therefore cut down on the number of applications made.