DTI delays customs union deal

2003-04-16 15:48

Cape Town - The Department of Trade and Industry has put off, by at least a month, submitting to parliament for ratification the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) agreement - due to delays in drafting annexures to the document.

DTI chief director for trade negotiations Xavier Carrim said on Wednesday the drafting of two critical annexures to the agreement had proved more complex than originally expected.

"When we started the drafting at the beginning of this year, we were optimistic and maybe a little over-ambitious," he told reporters after briefing parliament's trade and industry portfolio committee.

It was now hoped the agreement would come before parliament by the end of next month.

Sacu members - South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland - reached consensus in 2001 on a new customs pool, and the agreement was signed by heads of state in October last year.

The annexures aim to help fine-tune the process to deal with objections to tariff and anti-dumping measures.

Carrim said concerns had been raised by business and labour organisations that the extensive reporting procedures between the member countries would lead to lengthy delays.

Pre-empting problems

There also were some policy differences between members that could have resulted in decisions taken by the Sacu board of tariffs being blocked by its higher decision-making body, the council of ministers.

"If we can anticipate these problems, we can pre-empt them... therefore, we needed to go back and look at the annexures very carefully."

He said there had been a concern within the department regarding the reaction of other members to the slow drafting process.

However, ultimately, South Africa was the dominant country, and so it was important that nothing was done to harm its economy.

The department had been expected to present the agreement and annexures to the committee on Wednesday.

- SAPA