By Phephile Motau
The five countries under the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) will soon start trading under the AfCFTA.
AfCFTA is the acronym for African Continental Free Area. SACU member states are the Republic of Botswana, the Kingdom of Eswatini, the Kingdom of Lesotho, the Republic of Namibia, and the Republic of South Africa.
Prime Minister Cleopas Dlamini said this following his trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he had attended the African Union (AU) Summit. He said the assembly decided on the AU theme of the year which is ‘Acceleration of the AfCFTA implementation’.
The PM representing His Majesty King Mswati III made a statement on behalf of the five SACU member states regarding the finalisation of the AfCFTA tariff order since His Majesty is the chairman.
Dlamini said the statement included that SACU had submitted its tariff offer to the AfCFTA that meets the required level of ambition and it is currently going through the verification process. Dlamini said this offer will be adopted by the assembly during the next summit scheduled for June 2023.
“This means that SACU members states will soon start trading under the AfCFTA preferentially considering that all of them have also ratified the agreement. This will allow the private sector to grow their trade into Africa and lead to economic growth in our respective countries in SACU, especially Eswatini,” he said.
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Dlamini said he encouraged the acceleration of the implementation of the SACU tariff offer as per the theme. He added that the assembly also adopted two new protocols that support the implementation of the AfCFTA agreement namely the protocol on competition policy and the protocol on investment.
Both protocols will assist the private sector to facilitate trade as they start investing and growing their market in Africa.
“Eswatini supports these protocols. Negotiations on the other protocols including intellectual property, digital trade, women and youth in trade are all still ongoing and anticipated to be finalised by June 2023,” Dlamini said.
He added that the assembly also addressed the ongoing global food crisis where they underscored the urgent need for vast initiatives and measures to ensure food security.
He said the assembly welcomed the efforts made by the states to address the challenges, particularly through the increase in food production and investment in agriculture.
