BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE– Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo is on a roll.
In his capacity as Chairperson of the SACU Ministers of Trade, the above-mentioned minister addressed the 11th Meeting of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers Responsible for Trade.
The meeting was held in Gaborone, Botswana, over the weekend.
AfCFTA is the acronym for African Continental Free Trade Area and SACU stands for Southern Africa Customs Union.
This was reported by Eswatini Government through their online platforms.
Khumalo’s submission was on the finalisation of SACU’s tariff schedule offer under the AfCFTA.
He indicated that SACU Members had finalised internal negotiations on the AfCFTA Tariff Offer which meets the level of ambition of 90 percent for Category A products, which are those to be liberalised immediately.
The offer will be endorsed by the Assembly after undergoing the necessary verification process by the AfCFTA Secretariat. Thereafter, SACU Member States can start trading preferentially under the AfCFTA Agreement and the business community will enjoy the benefits of the continental market. At the meeting, Ministers of Trade approved the Special Economic Zones Regulations, which will assist in ensuring that goods produced under SEZs benefit from the AfCFTA Agreement if they meet the agreed rules of origin. They also considered reports and endorsed recommendations of the Committees on Digital Trade, Women and Youth in Trade and the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), among other things.
