The Zimbabwe Guardian (London)
Itayi Garande
16 June 2008
SOUTHERN African Development Community (Sadc) countries have agreed to allow over 80 percent of goods to be exported to member states duty free by August 1 this year marking a milestone in the region's desire to attain the Free Trade Arrangement (FTA) status.
This agreement was reached at the just ended Trade Law Centre of Southern Africa (Tralac) annual conference held in Cape Town, South Africa.
The scrapping of duty and tariffs is in line with Sadc's initiative to become a free trade area by the end of 2008.
This privilege will only be enjoyed by those Sadc countries that ratified the treaty and Zimbabwe is one of them.
The treaty is aimed at enhancing free movement of goods within the region leaving only 20 percent of goods deemed sensitive and detrimental to an individual country's economy if imported duty free, subject to tariffs.
Out of the 14 member countries, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are not part of the agreement.
The conference which took place from 12-13 June also focused on launching a customs union in 2010--the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). The objective of establishing a customs union came onto the agenda with the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) in 2003 and was discussed but not concluded.
Some of the issues highlighted as hampering progress on the customs union include lack of political will to create a robust legal and institutional infrastructure for the customs union, and lack of clarity on the part of South Africa as to its position on SACU.
This year's conference had three sessions focussing on intra-regional developments - (SACU-SADC), Economic Partnership Agreements and deeper regional integration and "Looking South, Looking East - India, China and Southern Africa" initiatives.
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