Customs Union of Southern Africa

Customs Union of Southern Africa SACU
Member States
German name	Customs Union of Southern Africa South African Customs Union
English name	Southern African Customs Union
Organization type	Customs union
Seat of the organs	Windhoek , Namibia
Chair	see Chair of the SACU Council of Ministers
Secretary General	Paulina Mbala Elago (since 2014)
Member States	5 :  Botswana  Lesotho  Namibia  South Africa Eswatini
Official and working languages	English
founding	1910
Currencies	South African Rand (except in Botswana) Botswana pula Lesotho Loti Namibian dollars Swaziland Lilangeni
Time zone	UTC + 2
www.sacu.int

The Customs Union of Southern Africa ( English Southern African Customs Union , SACU ), more often also called the South African Customs Union , is a customs union of the states of Botswana , Lesotho , Namibia , South Africa and Eswatini . It was founded in 1910 as the first of its kind worldwide.

history

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The SACU goes back to a customs union between the South African Union , Bechuanaland , Swaziland and Basutoland in 1910. South West Africa (Namibia) can be seen as a de facto member of the SACU from 1918 onwards, as it was under foreign administration by South Africa from that point on. The SACU is the oldest still existing customs union in the world.

The customs union founded in 1889 between the British Cape Colony and the Orange Free State can be seen as a direct forerunner of the SACU .

In 1969 and 2002 the content of the South African Customs Union was redesigned through new treaties.

In parallel to the SACU, its member countries, with the exception of Botswana, operate a common currency policy, whereby the currency of the four remaining countries within the Common Monetary Area is linked to the South African rand .

Member States and selected indicators

Member State	Capital	population	Area (in km²)	GDP ( PPP in million US dollars )	GDP / capita (PPP in USD)	PFI (World Rank; 2020)
Botswana	Gaborone	2,249,104 (2018)	581.730	41,902	17,948	39
Lesotho	Maseru	2,007,201 (2016)	30,355	6,976	3,601	86
Namibia	Windhoek	2,324,388 (2016)	824.116	27,270	11,298	23
South Africa	Pretoria , Cape Town , Bloemfontein	57,730,000 (2018)	1,221,037	742.461	13,591	31
Eswatini	Mbabane	1,093,238 (2017)	17,363	11,070	9,776	141

Chair of the SACU Council of Ministers (since 2004)

• July 2004 – July 2005: Namibia - Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila
• July 2005 – July 2006: South Africa - Trevor Manuel
• July 2006 – July 2007: Swaziland - Majozi Sithole
• July 2007 – July 2008: Botswana - Baledzi Gaolathe
• July 2008 – July 2009: Lesotho - Timothy Thahane
• July 2009 – July 2010: Namibia - Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila (2nd term)
• July 2010 – July 2011: South Africa - Pravin Gordhan
• July 2011 – July 2012: Swaziland - Majozi Sithole (2)
• July 2012 – March 2015: Botswana - Ontefetse Matambo
• March 2015: Namibia - Calle Schlettwein
• April 2015 – February 2016: South Africa - Nhlanhla Nene
• February 2016 – July 2016: South Africa - Pravin Gordhan (2)
• July 15, 2016–15. July 2017: Swaziland - Martin Dlamini
• July 15, 2017–15. July 2018: Botswana - Kenneth Matambo
• July 15, 2018–15. July 2019: Lesotho - Moeketsi Majoro
• since July 15, 2019: Namibia - Calle Schlettwein (2)

Developments until 2002

According to the Treaty of 1969, the customs union guarantees the duty-free exchange of goods and services between the member states. In addition, there is a uniform tariff for third countries. In order to compensate for the economic inequalities between the states, a compensation mechanism, the so-called Common Revenue Pool , was introduced, which is based on a disproportionate share of the customs revenue in favor of Botswana, Lesothos, Namibia and Swaziland (also called BLNS states). This compensation fund secures the BLNS states a considerable share of their state income. On average, 50 percent of the state revenues of Lesotho and Swaziland, around 30 percent in the case of Namibia and around 17 percent in the case of Botswana, are covered by the SACU fund.

Disadvantages within the SACU for the BLNS states result on the one hand from a polarization in favor of South Africa, since the South African competition is pushing the less well-developed industries in the other member states out of the market. On the other hand, there is trade diversification, with expensive South African products displacing cheaper goods from third countries.

Under the 1969 treaty it was regulated that South Africa made all political decisions alone, since the authorities responsible for the SACU were located in the South African Ministry of Commerce. In addition, the states had to wait two years for their portion of the SACU fund to be paid out by South Africa, while South Africa was able to collect the interest on the money during this period.

Developments from 2002

A revision of the SACU Treaty of 1969 was finally achieved in October 2002 after almost eight years of negotiations. In 2004, this new union agreement came into force, which abolished the political supremacy and the de facto right to the sole determination of the internal Union customs and excise tax law in South Africa in favor of a common administration. The most important SACU organs include:

• The Council of Ministers is the highest decision-making body of the community and consists of at least one minister from the finance or trade sector from each member country. Decisions in the Council of Ministers are made by consensus.

• The Secretariat and its Secretary General are responsible for the administrative management of the SACU and are based in Windhoek , Namibia. It coordinates and monitors the decisions of the Council of Ministers.

• The Commission is responsible for the implementation of the SACU contract and for monitoring the Common Revenue Pool .

• The Tribunal will deal after its establishment as an independent, regional appeals court with the settlement of internal disputes.

In addition to revising the compensation mechanism, a development fund was set up to support the weaker states of the SACU.

On July 1, 2006, the SACU signed a free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) to liberalize trade in industrial goods, processed agricultural products, fish and other marine products. The agreement came into force in 2007 after ratification in the member states of the two economic alliances.

In April 2008, a cooperation agreement was also signed between the SACU and the USA for the mutual expansion of trade and investment.

The SACU is always chaired by the finance minister of a member state for 12 months from July of each year.

literature

• Martin Adelmann: Regional Cooperation in Southern Africa . Freiburg im Breisgau 2003
• Volker Ressler: The Perspectives of Regional Integration in Southern Africa . Frankfurt am Main 2007
• Jörgen Vogt: The regional integration of southern Africa . Baden-Baden 2007

Web links

Commons : South African Customs Union  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ SACU - South African Customs Union , at SECO (Switzerland)
2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from April 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) SACU History
3. ^ Council of Ministers. sacu.int, accessed April 23, 2020
4. ↑ Chris Alden, Mills Soko: South Africa's economic relations with Africa: hegemony and its discontents , in: The Journal of Modern African Studies 43, 3 (2005), p. 371 f. JSTOR 3876060
5. ↑ John Daniel, Jessica Lutchman, Sanusha Naidu: South Africa and Nigeria: two unequal centers in a periphery , in Roger Southall, Jessica Lutchman: State of the Nation: South Africa 2004 - 2005 , Cape Town 2005, p 566
6. ^ The Chairperson of the SACU Council of Ministers. SACU.