Regional integration is to progress to an advanced and critical stage in SADC. With the launch of the SADC free trade area having taken place successfully in 2008 the next step according to the SADC RISDP is the customs union stage. This stage involves deeper integration as well as more cooperation amongst Member countries and to some extent will involve ceding of sovereignty to a supranational body that will be tasked with the administration of the customs union. With the lack of cooperation that was showed by some SADC countries during the implementation of the SADC FTA one doubts whether SADC countries will indeed cooperate during the customs union phase. Different levels of development, divergent trade policies and overlapping membership into other RECs pose a significant challenge into the formation of a SADC customs union. Looking at the challenges confronting the formation of the SADC customs union it would seem as if it is all gloom and doom. However one lesson picked up in all regional integration initiatives in all regions of the world is that significant challenges will always exist; what is important is that Member countries need to show full commitment and focus on the bigger goal they seek to achieve as the region. SACU the world’s oldest customs union is constituted by SADC Member countries. With the problem of overlapping membership SACU is both an obstacle and a solution for SADC depending on which view one holds. SACU can be seen as an obstacle because if SACU was not there perhaps the problem of overlapping membership would not be the way it is. Currently only one SADC country is not affected by the problem of overlapping into various other RECs. If SACU was not there the number of countries not overlapping would be perhaps six countries. On the other hand one can choose to look at SACU as a solution to the establishment of the SADC customs union under the circumstances that currently prevail in SADC. SACU can be used as a basis for a SADC customs union by having all other SADC Member that are ready to join the customs union accede into SACU and whilst others that are not ready still work on their policies and join latter when they are ready to do so. This is referred to as ‘variable-geometry’; a principle that has been successfully implemented in the EU over the years. However taking a close look at SACU one realises that there is still lot of work to be done within SACU to have SACU ready for expansion. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

Considering the obstacles to the conclusion of the Doha Round of international trade negotiations, bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) are the new trend emerging in international relations. Hence, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and China intend to negotiate such an agreement in order to promote trade and investment between their markets. However, SACU is an organisation with a colonial legacy that continues to debilitate the economies of its weaker member states. Discrepancies in its administration and operation threaten the integrity of the customs union, especially when third parties are involved. This study assesses the politics of trade in the Southern African Customs Union, and the prospect of a FTA with the People’s Republic of China. It explores the quantity and quality of trade between the parties, as well as the role of the state in encouraging economic diplomacy. The dissertation draws on the experiences of other developing countries that have signed FTAs with stronger economies, in order to provide policy recommendations that will steer sustainable trade relations between SACU and China that will be aligned to SACU’s development agenda. The study concludes that a FTA will stimulate a restructuring of SACU’s trade partners, without creating a significant increase in production or employment. Furthermore, the cost competitiveness of Chinese imports will cripple the respective SACU industries, cause unemployment and negate prospects of new industrialisation in certain sectors of the economy. SACU’s strategy for trade liberalisation should be incremental and sector specific. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

The Cotonou Agreement introduces never fundamental principles with respect to trade between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries relative to the Lome Convention: in particular non-reciprocal preferential market access for ACP economies will only last until 1 January 2008. After that date, it will be replaced by a string of Economic Partnership Agreements (E PA) meant to progressively liberalise trade in a reciprocal way. The progressive removal of barriers to trade is expected to result in the establishment of Free Trade Agreements between the EU and ACP regional groups in accordance with the relevant WTO rules and help further existing regional integration efforts among the ACP. Most discussions or economic development in Africa focus on regional integration as an important element. From the first post-colonial meetings. African leaders emphasised regional integration as a key element of their strategies. In the most recent African plan for economic development, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), regional and sub regional approaches to development arc again a key element. The plan sees the small size of countries, low incomes, and consequently limited markets as a limit to economies of scale, thus denying attractive returns to investors and in o doing constraining the diversification of production and exports. This is the key reason for pooling resources in order to enhance regional economic integration. The decision by Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland to sign the interim EPA came in the result of SACU's failure to negotiate as a bloc with a view to sign the EPA. In this research, the following statistical techniques were applied: t-test, f-test, regression analysis and its forecasts model for seven Southern African Development Community Economic Partnership Agreement (SADC EPA) group trading with the European Union, is used to simulate the opportunities and benefits of EPAs for countries or the SADC region. Simulation results show that EPAs with the EU are welfare-enhancing for SADC overall. leading also to substantive increases in real GOP. For most countries further gains may arise from intra-SADC liberalization. / Thesis (M.Com.(Economics) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2011

The South African Customs Union (SACU) is one of the many regional trade arrangements that litter the African continent. However unlike its counterparts it is unique in terms of the huge disparities between the economic states of its member states. SACU is currently struggling to redefine itself from its historical trimmings as a plumped up South African foreign policy tool to a regional body that caters for the needs of all its member nations. Key to this purported transformation would be how SACU copes with the increased presence of foreign multinational companies within the common market and coupled to this the persistent threat from established South African companies on infant industries within smaller SACU states. This dissertation highlights the potential role of competition policy as a market correcting mechanism within the regional context. It does so by shedding insights as to the workings of competition law, its natural impediments, modifications it would require and the objectives which it can be used to achieve. It considers the current state of competition law within SACU both on the domestic and regional front and compares them with examples found in other regional arrangements. It strives having regard to peculiarities within SACU to draw attention to shortfalls in its current approach to competition issues and makes a case for the modifying the current modus operandi. It proceeds from the viewpoint that without a fortification of SACU current approach to competition issues, the huge lacuna currently existing would deprive the regional body of any true gains to be made from trade liberalisation. It also proposes a regional competition policy as a means of controlling the ever present threat of established South African to infant industries in smaller SACU states and hopes this instrument will have the secondary effect of easing political tensions within the union. It makes an important call that special consideration be given towards smaller SACU states noting the cost and burden of implementing competition policy. It also considers the role competition law plays within a development framework dispelling prevailing conceptions within certain schools that it stunts growth of industries. It factors into its analysis, the ongoing negotiations between the European Union and SADC. It holds these processes as placing a further impetus on SACU nations to consider a movement from the current positive comity form which competition policy takes in the region by declaring it to be a weak form of cooperation and unsuited to effectively managing the new challenges that successfully negotiated EPA’s would place on competition authorities within SACU. Ultimately it proposes that SACU requires a strengthened competition policy to secure the gains from international trade but that more importantly it requires the right form of policy, a policy created in consideration of its history, current tensions, developmental needs, that foresees the potential for harm inherent in the EPA process and a policy that appreciates the burden a generic law might place on its member states. Its solution to the current crisis is a hybrid system incorporating elements of the EC supranational competition directorate and CARICOM special and differential treatment provisions. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

The unemployment rate is one of the most important indicators of economic growth. Reducing unemployment is crucial to ensuring inclusive growth in a country. This paper analyses the relationship between the unemployment rate and other macroeconomic variables in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The purpose of the study is to compare and understand the observed unemployment disparities between southernmost and the rest of the SADC countries. It draws on the theoretical framework of the Phillips curve and Okun's law and uses static panel data and fully modified ordinary least squares techniques (FM-OLS) to estimate the empirical model. Annual data for the period 1991 to 2020 are used. Analyses are conducted both at the aggregate SADC data level and at the subgroup level, i.e. at the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and non-SACU country levels. Diagnostic tests are conducted to ensure the robustness of the models. The empirical results of this study show that labour productivity, external debt and population have significant effects on unemployment across the SADC region. Inflation, labour productivity and population have significant effects in SACU, while external debt, labour productivity and population have significant effects in non-SACU countries. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) have mixed but insignificant effects on the unemployment rate, indicating a low employment elasticity of growth in the region.

MAAS / Department of Developmental Studies

This paper critically analyses the use of anti-dumping regulation in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) with specific reference to Botswana. Dumping takes place where products are introduced into the commerce of another country at less than its normal value, if the export price of the product exported from one country to another is less than the comparable price, in the ordinary course of trade, for the like product when destined for consumption in the exporting country. Anti-dumping duties are an internationally-recognised exception to three core WTO principles namely, bound tariff commitments, most-favoured-nation MFN) and national treatment. The use of anti-dumping in SACU has always been in accordance with existing WTO rules. The new SACU Agreement has important implications for the anti-dumping regime within the customs union. It changed the way in which tariff decisions, including anti-dumping tariffs, are made and it also requires member states to develop legislation on contingency trade remedies such as anti-dumping for the region and to establish national bodies to administer these remedies within different countries. The SACU council has given mandate to the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) to undertake all trade remedies investigations and imposition of the necessary duties. From the inception of ITAC till now ninety-five percent (95%) of all anti-dumping applications filed at ITAC alleging dumping are instituted by South Africa industries. Thus, only five percent (5%) of all anti-dumping applications are from Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS countries). The findings in this paper reveal that Botswana has never filed an application seeking protection of any of its industries. In terms of Article 14 of the SACU Agreement Botswana is in the process of establishing its national body like ITAC. The argument is that, since Botswana has never filed for any trade remedy how effective will this national body going to be? Therefore, critically analyzing the use of anti-dumping regulation is very crucial for Botswana as a SACU member. Such analysis will help assess the effectiveness of SACU institutions such as the tariff board and the Botswana national body to be established. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

<p>The EPA&rsquo / s will have an impact on regional integration in Africa, especially in the SADC region. The region has been split between the SADC and ESA EPA configuration therefore impacting on regional integration objectives set out under the SADC Trade Protocol.The EPA&rsquo / s will be concluded separately with six of the sub groupings under the ACP grouping. With the EU-SADC EPA negotiations has come a problem of overlapping of membership of the different regions which has created confusion and conflicts. Members of Southern African Development Cooperation (SADC) did not all enter into the EU-SADC EPA has one. The EU-SADC EPA configuration consists of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Tanzania. The rest of the SADC member states are negotiating with the EU-ESA configuration. With South Africa having been allowed into the negotiations, its role should be examined and what it can contribute to the negotiations. Another conflict that has been created is the fact that South Africa has its own bilateral agreement with the EU thus putting stain on the trade relationship between South African and the rest of the SADC countries.</p>

<p>The EPA&rsquo / s will have an impact on regional integration in Africa, especially in the SADC region. The region has been split between the SADC and ESA EPA configuration therefore impacting on regional integration objectives set out under the SADC Trade Protocol.The EPA&rsquo / s will be concluded separately with six of the sub groupings under the ACP grouping. With the EU-SADC EPA negotiations has come a problem of overlapping of membership of the different regions which has created confusion and conflicts. Members of Southern African Development Cooperation (SADC) did not all enter into the EU-SADC EPA has one. The EU-SADC EPA configuration consists of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Tanzania. The rest of the SADC member states are negotiating with the EU-ESA configuration. With South Africa having been allowed into the negotiations, its role should be examined and what it can contribute to the negotiations. Another conflict that has been created is the fact that South Africa has its own bilateral agreement with the EU thus putting stain on the trade relationship between South African and the rest of the SADC countries.</p>

Magister Legum - LLM / The EPA’s will have an impact on regional integration in Africa, especially in the SADC region. The region has been split between the SADC and ESA EPA configuration therefore impacting on regional integration objectives set out under the SADC Trade Protocol.The EPA’s will be concluded separately with six of the sub groupings under the ACP grouping. With the EU-SADC EPA negotiations has come a problem of overlapping of membership of the different regions which has created confusion and conflicts. Members of Southern African Development Cooperation (SADC) did not all enter into the EU-SADC EPA has one. The EU-SADC EPA configuration consists of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Tanzania. The rest of the SADC member states are negotiating with the EU-ESA configuration. With South Africa having been allowed into the negotiations, its role should be examined and what it can contribute to the negotiations. Another conflict that has been created is the fact that South Africa has its own bilateral agreement with the EU thus putting stain on the trade relationship between South African and the rest of the SADC countries.