BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – Southern African Customs Union (SACU) businesses will soon access the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) market.
SACU category A products will be the first to be traded in the AfCFTA market, which is beneficiary to the country.
Worth noting is that Category A products are those that are traded in the agriculture sector, the availability of the new market will boost SACU receipts, which declined by more than eight per cent in Eswatini last year.
The Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade, Manqoba Khumalo, as Chairperson of SACU Ministers, informed AfCFTA member States that the SACU region was ready to trade.
This was during the 11th AfCFTA Council of Ministers Responsible for Trade, which was held in Gaborone, Botswana on Saturday.
Khumalo indicated that SACU members have finalised internal negotiations on the AfCFTA tariff offer, which meets the level of ambition of 90 percent for category A products, which he said were 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 AfCTA agreement and the business community will enjoy the benefits of the continental market,” said Khumalo.
The minister added that SACU Secretariat would work with the AfCFTA Secretariat to ensure that the offer was available to all AfCFTA State parties once all technical verification had been finalised.
