Customs Union at 100

The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) turned 100 years old last week. The world's oldest union, SACU was initiated by colonial authorities in 1910 and includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. Recently, the customs union has wavered on the edge of collapse, but last week the five heads of state signed a new vision of cooperation in industrialization and development. This engagement at the highest level is a significant step forward.

However, significant challenges remain. Each member state is pursuing trade agreements with other partners. The European Union is currently negotiating an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) that threatens to divide the members. Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland signed an EPA with the EU last year, but South Africa and Namibia have not. South Africa, which faces different rules due to its relative wealth, urges SACU members to take a united approach. The centennial festivities could not disguise the underlying tensions that remain.

The five SACU member states are also members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a more recently formed regional economic community that also includes Angola, DRC, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. SADC also aspires to form a customs union, which would replace SACU. The target was to form a customs union by this year, but SACU members will miss this target due to the lack of convergence criteria being met.