JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA 

Your Majesty King Mswati III;

Let me start by first welcoming delegates from Member States as well as well as our distinguished invited guests to this very important occasion marking the launch of the SADC Free Trade Area. I wish to take this opportunity, first, to thank the Government and the People of South Africa for the warm hospitality and the excellent conditions they have created for our meetings, and in particular for the launch of the FTA. 

I stand here today with a great sense of joy and pride as we gather to celebrate the result of a long hard walk to achieve the first milestone of the SADC integration agenda, the SADC Free Trade Area. This great achievement is a clear demonstration of our unreserved commitment towards promoting deeper regional integration, economic growth, poverty eradication and sustainable development in SADC.

The journey has not been without challenges. It required a lot of compromises to be made in order to reach common ground on a number of very sensitive issues which impinge on the sovereignty of individual Member States. Despite this, we have achieved our goal, and for this, we pay homage to our leaders, through whose able leadership, we would not have come this far.

As you may be aware, the SADC trade programme is very wide. 

Allow me at this juncture to highlight a few areas which constituted the trade programme during the last eight years. 

Particular attention has been focused on the creation of the Free Trade Area which we are launching today. Through the FTA, 85% of trade in goods produced in the region will move across borders free of any customs duties;

we continue to simplify the Rules of Origin, particularly in those areas with potential for trade. A few tariff lines in the area of textiles, clothing and motor vehicles are now outstanding;

trade facilitation instruments, including the SADC Declaration Form and Certificate of Origin have been simplified and harmonized;

The SADC Model Customs Act and SADC Customs Transit Management System have been developed. The Model Act will serve as a benchmark document to facilitate harmonization of national customs laws and procedures. The Transit Management System seeks to accord goods in transit, having sufficient bond cover, to transit the region with single surety and single customs declaration, and to benefit from speedy clearance. 

In the area of investment, the Finance and Investment Protocol has been developed with the aim of facilitating the creation of a conducive investment regime in the region and thereby increase investment. The Protocol is currently undergoing ratification processes in Member States.

On Competition Policy, a Declaration on Regional Cooperation and Consumer Laws and Policies has been developed. Through this Declaration, Member States will cooperate to address unfair business practices and to promote competition in the region.

Annexes on Technical Barriers to Trade and Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary measures have been developed. Work in this area will ensure adherence to international standards and technical regulations, facilitate the attainment of internationally accepted standards for our products, and increase our competitive advantage as a region.   

A Protocol on Regional Trade in Services is being developed. This Protocol will form the basis for negotiations aimed at opening the regional services market.

A lot of work still needs to be done in the area of non-tariff barriers. It is true that once tariffs are removed, there is a tendency for non-tariff barriers to proliferate. Consequently, our aim is to reinforce monitoring and compliance in this area, and for us to succeed, the private sector should play an active role in identifying and reporting the NTBs.  

Your Majesty and 

Although there is a lot generally to be done to consolidate the SADC FTA, the work so far done places SADC in a good position as an attractive environment for doing business.    

Our region however still faces the challenge of low productive capacity, characterized by low volumes of intra-SADC trade. The composition of goods traded is mainly primary and unprocessed goods, with about 90% of exports comprising mineral and agricultural products.

The overall picture, looking at the pattern of trade in the region, points to the need for more coordinated measures to boost productive capacity and competitiveness and to ensure the development and expansion of a balanced industrial base that optimally utilizes the region’s resources, particularly in mining and agriculture. 

This is particularly important to boost intra-SADC trade, which although has increased in absolute terms since the entry into force of the Trade Protocol, from about US $5.6 billion to about US $10.8 billion in 2006, has remained insignificant in comparison to total share of world trade. Total SADC share of world trade is currently only 1%.  Focus on agriculture and in particular on food production in the advent of the world food crisis will be absolutely critical to ensure food security in the region.

Allow me to come back to the specific issue of the FTA and what the ordinary SADC citizen may expect to benefit from this process. The impact of this process should first be felt by our business community, who should be facilitated through an enabling environment, to do business at lower costs.

As we now have addressed the issue of tariffs, our next step should be to focus on addressing NTB’s which mainly present themselves in the form of unnecessary bureaucratic processes, complicated procedures and rules as well as the generally poor state of infrastructure in the region. These contribute immensely to the costs of doing business. 

If such costs could be reduced to the bare minimum, this can stimulate growth and development of businesses, facilitate competition through new investments, and create employment and wealth for our people in the region. It is our expectation that once the Infrastructure Master Plan comes on stream, some of the major infrastructure hurdles the region faces, will be adequately addressed to enhance trade facilitation efforts we are currently pursuing as a region.  

In the final analysis, we should strive for an all inclusive FTA, which brings on board, the entire SADC membership. The Secretariat, and I believe the entire membership of SADC, stand ready to assist Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and our new comer, Seychelles to be integrated into the SADC FTA, so that we can all move together towards a common future for our people. 

Your Majesty

Excellencies

I would like to end my Statement by recognizing support from all those who have helped us walk this difficult path the past few years. Let me take this opportunity thank them most heartily for their unwavering and continued support to our regional integration agenda and specifically for the support they have given to the implementation of the SADC Protocol on Trade. This journey would have been more difficult without their support. I call upon them to continue in that spirit to assist the region to attain sustainable growth, development and create wealth for its people. 

I wish Mr. Chairman, to end on this note and I thank you all, merci beaucoup, muito obrigado.