tralac hosted a two-day workshop in Cape Town in early November 2018 to discuss the future of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the oldest customs union in the world. 

The workshop was facilitated by Trudi Hartzenberg (tralac Executive Director), Gerhard Erasmus (tralac Associate), and Anton Faul (SACU Secretariat).

The workshop was held under Chatham House rules. Discussions centred on the following topics:

1. Update on the SACU Work Programme – Revenue sharing arrangement; Industriali-sation; An appropriate tariff management arrangement?

2. Construct and Evolution – Is the current SACU Agreement an effective and enabling instrument for 21st century economic realities?; Do we recognise practical commercial realities?

3. SACU’s Institutional Architecture – Is the SACU design appropriate?; What is the record with respect to practice?; Role of South Africa’s International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC); Can SACU move forward without rules-based governance?

4. SACU and global economic governance – World Trade Organisation crisis; The SADC EPA and Brexit; US trade policy (and mid-term elections) and AGOA; BRICS – a meaningful relationship?

5. SACU in Africa – SACU in SADC; Tripartite Free Trade Area – another layer of trade governance; African Continental Free Trade Area – rush to ratify, completing phase 1 and what about phase 2 negotiations?

6. South Africa and SACU – South Africa’s domestic challenges: implications for SACU; South Africa’s strategy for Africa?; How should South Africa look at SACU?

7. What are the critical issues for SACU? – Inapproprirate legal and institutional framework; A hegemon facing its own domestic economic development and governance challenges; Where is the policy oxygen for the BLNE to support their industrialization and development?

Where to now?