SADC to meet trade deadline

JOHANNESBURG – Southern Africa is on track to form a free trade zone by 2008 and is still considering establishment of a customs union, a senior official with an African leadership group said on Tuesday.

“We will be able to meet the deadline of the FTA (Free Trade Area) and we are seeing what we can do to meet the customs union,” Xolelwa Mlumbi-Peter, a South African trade official and director of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), told a news conference in Johannesburg. Set up by the African Union to fight poverty and increase trade and investment on the world’s most impoverished continent, Nepad has thrown its support behind the idea of setting up a free trade zone in the region next year.SADC, a group of 14 nations including economic powerhouse South Africa, also is pushing the plan, which would in theory be followed by a customs union in 2010 and common market in 2015.But Mlumbi-Peter’s rosy outlook came in the face of doubts that the economic integration goals were likely to be met.Sceptics point to the scant progress made to boost interregional trade as an indication of the weak commitment that some nations in the region have to free trade.They cite lack of transparency in regulations, high customs charges and bureaucracy as major barriers to the effort.Key officials in South Africa, seen as the linchpin of a free trade and customs zone, have also played down hopes.Nampa-ReutersSet up by the African Union to fight poverty and increase trade and investment on the world’s most impoverished continent, Nepad has thrown its support behind the idea of setting up a free trade zone in the region next year.SADC, a group of 14 nations including economic powerhouse South Africa, also is pushing the plan, which would in theory be followed by a customs union in 2010 and common market in 2015.But Mlumbi-Peter’s rosy outlook came in the face of doubts that the economic integration goals were likely to be met.Sceptics point to the scant progress made to boost interregional trade as an indication of the weak commitment that some nations in the region have to free trade.They cite lack of transparency in regulations, high customs charges and bureaucracy as major barriers to the effort.Key officials in South Africa, seen as the linchpin of a free trade and customs zone, have also played down hopes.Nampa-Reuters