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Southern Africa: Sacu Council of Ministers Meets in Gaborone
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
3 April 2008
Posted to the web 3 April 2008
Staff Writer
A meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) will be held at the Phakalane Golf Estate in Gaborone tomorrow.
The meeting will be the 14th since the coming into force of the new SACU agreement on July 15, 2004 and the third since Botswana took over the chairmanship of SACU on July 15, 2007 from Swaziland.
A press statement says the council will receive a report of the Executive Secretary providing a strategic overview of the organisation's progress and challenges experienced in implementation of the 2002 SACU Agreement to date.
"The report will further provide an analytic perspective with regards to promoting deeper regional integration through the 2002 SACU Agreement, a case for consolidating SACU in view of the required commitment in implementing the objectives of the Agreement and the experience of establishing the SACU secretariat," says the press release.
The council will receive updates on SACU Trade Negotiations with third parties. The council will also look into the SACU-USA Trade Investment and Development Cooperation Agreement (TIDCA), which is aimed at promoting investment and expanding and diversifying trade between SACU and the US.
Another agreement update the council will receive is on the SACU-India Preferential Trade Agreement Negotiations where the two met on February 21 and 22, 2008 in Walvis Bay, Namibia for the 2nd round of "negotiations towards conclusion of a Preferential Trade Agreement".
That meeting also considered a final draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for negotiating a Preferential Trade Agreement between SACU and India.
The third negotiation the council will review is that of SACU-Member Preferential Trade Agreement Negotiations with the 12th negotiating round between "SACU and MERCOSUR scheduled to take place on April 17 and 18, 2008.
Other updates include the development of the Common Negotiating Mechanism for SACU in which Article 31 of the 2002 SACU Agreement provides for the establishment of the SACU Common Negotiating Mechanism (CNM). These negotiations will ensure a common SACU position and approach towards trade relations with third parties.
Updates on the work of the SACU Regional Integration Task Team studies on the consolidation of SACU and the work of the SACU Technical Liaison Committees (TLCs) are some of the reports the council will receive.
The press statement says the Gaborone meeting comes at a time when SACU faces a number of key challenges, especially with regard to SACU's relations with third parties. These challenges will increase in the course of 2008 as participation in multilateral and regional negotiations becomes more demanding and complex, says the statement.
The SACU Council of Ministers comprises ministers of finance and trade and industry from all the five SACU member states, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. It is assisted by the Customs Union Commission (CUC), which comprises permanent secretaries of finance and trade and industry from member states.
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The Council of Ministers' meeting will be preceded by a meeting of the Customs Union Commission, which will take place on April 2 and 3, 2008 in Gaborone.
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