Moves are afoot to revive talks around establishing a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between India and the oldest tariffs oversight organisation in the world, the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu).
According to South African customs specialist Mike Poverello, the decision to revive discussion around the previously mooted PTA emanated from an online meeting held last week between Srikar Reddy, joint secretary of India’s Department of Commerce, and Steve Katjiuanjo, executive director for Namibia’s Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade and SME Development.
Delhi-based newspaper The Economic Times reported that there were two reasons for the decision to recommence PTA deliberations: India’s historically close ties with Southern Africa, and its $66.7-billion trade with Africa for the 2019/20 period.
Of this figure $10.9 billion is generated within the Sacu region which, apart from Namibia, has South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana and Eswatini as member states.
The Economic Times quoted Katjiuanjo as saying that trade was currently in Sacu’s favour, thus showing that the region was benefiting from access to the vast Indian market.
Indian high commissioner to Namibia, Prashant Agrawal, said it made sense to pursue strengthened trade ties between India and Sacu considering the potential the region had for extending its access to the Asian tiger’s $2.9-trillion economy.
