SADC forum will bring together Customs and private sector

The SADC Secretariat has polished up its act to promote a “Customs to Business Partnership Forum” and taken it on the road. When the workshop arrived in Swaziland last week, Gideon Phiri, the forum’s coordinator, said the body was needed as a foundation for an eventual Pan-African common market. “The forum, when established, will act as a contact point between the customs department and private sector. The target is to establish a common market over the entire African continent, but this vision can only be achieved through the understanding and support of the stakeholders,” Phiri said. Private businesses involved in import/export are to participate in the forum deliberations, which is necessary before a regional common market, the SADC Customs Union scheduled for this year, goes into effect. National customs and excise systems must be standardised, and this requires input from end users rather than having standards decreed by SADC officials, officials said. “We want to be accessible to the business community because in many instances we have been viewed as a barrier at the border gates, and we want the business community to know that we are there to help them and not act as a barrier,” said Gugu Zwane from Swaziland’s Department of Customs and Excise. “We believe that when we are equal partners, we can discuss and share ideas that will benefit both parties,” Zwane said. To that end, customs officials and SADC technocrats got an earful from import/export firms on the need to harmonise different national customs procedures, speed up the enactment of the electronic processing of goods, and get serious about corruption amongst border post customs personnel.