DONE BY: F. AHRORY. SACU The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is a customs union among five countries of Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia,

DONE BY: F. AHRORY

SACU

The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is a customs union among five countries of Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.

HISTORY

SACU is the oldest existing customs union in the world. It was established in 1910 pursuant to a Customs Union Agreement between the Union of South Africa and the High Commission Territories of Bechuanaland, Basutoland and Swaziland. With the advent of independence for these territories, the agreement was updated and on 11 December 1969. It was relaunched as the SACU with the signing of an agreement between the Republic of South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.

HISTORY CON’T

The updated union officially entered into force on 1 March 1970. After Namibia's independence from South Africa in 1990, it joined SACU as its fifth member.

As of 2007, the Executive Secretary of the SACU was Tswelopele C. Moremi.

FUNCTIONS AND ORGANISATION

The union meets annually to discuss matters related to the Agreement. There are technical liaison committees, namely the Customs Technical Liaison Committee, the Trade and Industry Liaison committee and the Ad hoc Sub-Committee on Agriculture, which meet three times a year.

GOAL OF SACU

Its aim is to maintain the free interchange of goods between member countries. It provides for a common external tariff and a common excise tariff to this common customs area. All customs and excise collected in the common customs area are paid into South Africa’s National Revenue Fund. The revenue is shared among members according to a revenue-sharing formula as described in the agreement. South Africa is the custodian of this pool (объединение)

THE ADMINISTRATIVE INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE REVENUE POOL IS THE FOLLOWING:

Council of Ministers

A body represented by one minister from each SACU member state. It would be the supreme SACU decision-making body and would meet quarterly. The decisions taken by this council would only be by consensus.

Commission

Administrative body composed of Senior Officials, three Technical Liaison Committees and an established Agricultural Liaison Committee.

Tribunal

An independent body of experts. It would report directly to the Council of Ministers. The tribunal would be responsible for tariff-setting and the Anti-dumping Mechanism.

Secretariat

Responsible for day-to-day operations of the pool. It would be funded from the revenue pool. Its location would be determined by Senior Officials who were directed to meet after one month to develop proposals for the implementation of the revised SACU Institutional Structure.

SACU entered into a free trade deal with the four-nation European Free Trade Association on 1 July 2006, its negotiations with the United States for a free trade agreement have stalled (as of 8 January 2008)

THANKS