29 November 2007
Maputo — Mozambican participation in the regional integration of southern Africa is "not a matter of choice", but is inevitable, Prime Minister Luisa Diogo declared on Thursday.
Speaking at the close of the tenth annual conference of the Mozambican private sector, Diogo told her audience "If we want to sell our goods and services to the region, then we cannot reject regional integration".
The impending southern African free trade area certainly posed challenges for Mozambican businesses, she said - but it also opened great opportunities. "To have influence, we must be on the inside", Diogo insisted.
Nobody was ever prepared for competition, she argued, and that held true for other SADC (Southern African Development Community) members as well as for Mozambique. "We are afraid about certain goods and services", she said, "while the others are afraid about other goods and services - some of which Mozambique produces".
As from 1 January 2008, the general customs tariff levied on imports would fall to ten per cent, and the tariff on most goods produced by SADC members would fall to zero. Diogo pointed out that this was far from the first time that tariffs had been cut.
"Nobody died when we cut tariffs before, and nobody will die this time", she said.
Todd Amani, the director of the Maputo office of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), told the conference that relatively weak economies could do well out of regional integration - thus Portugal had profited from joining the European Union, and Mexico from the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA).
He had worked in central America previously, and when he heard businessmen in Mozambique demanding "more time to prepare" for integration, he had a strong sense of deja vu, since he had heard the same calls in Guatemala, before the introduction of the Central American Free Trade Accords (CAFTA).
"Despite discordant voices, integration helped Guatemala and forced it to make reforms to become more competitive", said Amani. "Regional integration will also force Mozambique to improve its business environment and reduce the costs of doing business to levels comparable with other countries in the region".
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