SANF 24 no 30 by Clarkson Mambo, SARDC
The Southern African Development Community is working on measures to promote intra-regional trade amid concerns that countries in the region are trading more with outsiders than among themselves.
SADC Executive Secretary, Elias Magosi said trade among member states stood at a low 23 percent of total trade.
“To facilitate intra-regional trade, Magosi said the SADC Secretariat is compiling information to produce a list of the top 10 exports and imports of SADC member states, and on what the region trades with the rest of the world,” Magosi said during the opening of the 44th SADC Summit held in Harare, Zimbabwe on 17 August.
He said the information would be used to develop strategic interventions and actions to improve access to markets within our community and facilitate improved intra-regional trade within the region.
“The status quo is not ideal and must be changed without delay,” he added.
Increasing trade within the region is critical at a time SADC is championing its industrialisation strategy aimed at boosting industrial capacity and production of value-added goods.
“To date, intra-regional trade stands at a low of about 23 percent, signifying that, as SADC member states, we are trading more with the rest of the world than we do amongst ourselves,” Magosi said.
A key obstacle to increased intra-regional trade is non-tariff barriers. These are defined as obstacles to trade, other than import and export duties. For example, these can be delays at border crossing points and requirements to obtain too many permits to move goods.
“It is, therefore, imperative to re-dedicate our collective efforts to implement measures to reduce these barriers and promote intra-regional cooperation and integration of intra-regional trade,” Magosi said.
SADC views trade as fundamental in its economic development as it has broader benefits that support regional integration. An increase in trade through liberalisation of policies increases economic growth and improves the quality of life of the people.
A population of nearly 390 million people and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$841 billion dollars, provides enormous potential for trade and investment opportunities in the region.
The refocusing and adoption of innovation under the leadership of Zimbabwe as SADC Chairperson, will aid the region’s industrial transformation journey, Magosi said.
The 44th Summit was held under the theme, “Promoting Innovation to Unlock Opportunities for Sustained Economic Growth and Development towards an Industrialised SADC”.
To boost regional trade, SADC has put in place mechanisms and protocols, key among them the SADC Protocol on Trade which entered into force on 25 January 2000.
A critical step taken by the region to encourage trade was the establishment of a Free Trade Area (FTA) launched during the 28th SADC Summit held in August 2008 in South Africa. A free trade area is one in which several countries in a grouping agree to remove tariffs against each other as a means to foster economic cooperation.
Following the launch of SADC Free Trade Area, payment of duty was removed on more than 85 percent of goods produced in the region. Despite this progress made, “new and long-standing unresolved non-tariff barriers” continued to present challenges, Magosi said.
As the SADC Protocol on Trade did not fully cover trade in services, SADC put in place a standalone Protocol on Trade in Services, which entered into force in January 2022.
The protocol provides a framework for a preferential trade agreement covering all commercial and tradable services in any services sector in the region. It aims to encourage increased intra-regional trade in services through the gradual removal of unnecessary or overburdensome regulation affecting the cross-border supply of services within the region.
According to the SADC Secretariat, services account for more than 50 percent of the Gross Domestic Product of the 16 member states.
Magosi said increase intra-regional trade would enhance the region’s chances to fully benefit in the Africa Continental Free Trade Area and within the recently launched Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), a partnership of SADC, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community.
The TFTA, which entered into force on 25 July 2024, provides access to 26 countries with a population of about 700 million, and a GDP of one trillion United States Dollars.
Magosi said mobilisation of financial resources was necessary to enhance the region’s efforts towards industrialisation and adoption on innovation among other objectives in the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) 2020-2030 and SADC Vision 2050.
“It is therefore imperative that as we intensify our efforts to mobilise resources, we should be deliberate and expedite the operationalisation of the Regional Development Fund (RDF), which the SADC Founders, in their wisdom, envisioned in the SADC Treaty as a mechanism for financing programmes aimed at accelerating the economic development and growth of the region,” he said.
The Agreement on the Operationalisation of the RDF is yet to enter into force as only eight member states have signed the Agreement and one has ratified.
SADC legal instruments only enter into force after at least two-thirds of the member states – or 11 countries – have deposited their certificates of ratification with the SADC Secretariat in Botswana.
Turning to peace and security, Magosi said progress has been made in restoring normalcy in Mozambique where a regional force under the banner of the SADC Mission in Mozambique had been deployed for three years to address the challenge of terrorism and insurgency.
“I wish to report that the Mission was successfully concluded on 4 July this year, and that the security situation in Cabo Delgado is better off than it was prior to the deployment of this mission,” he said.
Efforts to restore peace and silence the guns in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo were continuing with the recent deployment of the SADC Mission in the DRC.
“Last year, we deployed the SADC Mission in the DRC to support the Government of the DRC to restore peace and security, following an increase in conflicts and instability caused by the resurgence of armed groups,” he said.
The mission complements on-going diplomatic processes, namely the Luanda and Nairobi Processes, which aim to bring all concerned parties to the negotiating table to end the conflict.
Angolan President João Lourenço, who is outgoing SADC Chairperson, is leading the Luanda Process initiated in November 2023, which is focused on ending hostilities between the DRC and neighbouring Rwanda.
The DRC accuses Rwanda of fuelling instability in that region by continuing to support the M23 rebels. Rwanda denies the allegations.
The former President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, leads the Nairobi process which was launched in April 2022 with the objective of facilitating dialogue between the DRC government and the armed rebel groups.
The dialogue is intended to achieve a ceasefire, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of armed groups, and the return of displaced people to their homes.
The SADC Summit is responsible for the overall policy direction and control of functions of the community, ultimately making it the policy-making institution of SADC. sardc.net
