Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 6 • Number 34 • 9th October 2002

Southern African Summit Pushes For Further Regional Integration

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On 3 October, this year’s summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) concluded in Luanda, Angola. While issues around the current famine and the AIDS pandemic in the region dominated the agenda, leaders also addressed the process of regional integration in a bid to speed up development and improve its ability to deal with crises. In his concluding remarks, SADC Executive Secretary Dr. Prega Ramsamy noted that with peace and stability in the region, the prospects for enhancing and consolidating the integration process were now brighter. He indicated that substantial progress had been achieved in the Restructuring of SADC institutions, a process aimed at consolidating and deepening the SADC integration agenda. He also highlighted the inclusiveness aspects of the exercise.

According to SADC sources, the regional market is seen as a "spring-board" for the member states to integrate themselves into the global economy.

SADC foreign ministers, meeting for their annual summit at the same venue but ahead of the heads of state and government, called on the international community to accelerate emergency relief in the form of foodstuffs, cancel the debt of affected countries and promote fairer trade and market access for developing countries, in particular those affected by famine. Such a debt cancellation would affect six of the 14 SADC members - Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. SADC Ministers also noted the risk of famine in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which are emerging from decades of civil war.

The SADC Council of Ministers also noted the ongoing controversy surrounding genetically modified food products in the region and requested the World Health Organisation to provide further clarification on such foods. Of the six countries affected, Zambia has formally refused genetically modified organisms (GMOs), while others such as Zimbabwe have accepted them, but with strict controls. The Council approved setting up an advisory committee to develop guidelines on GMOs. It also sanctioned the dispatch of 20 SADC officials and scientists to the US "with a view to enhancing the region’s knowledge and understanding of GMOs".

Outgoing SADC chair, President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi, spoke about "the need for sustainable development" and emphasised that it required acknowledging people and putting them at the centre of development policies." He called for the empowerment of all peoples, particularly women and the poor, in order for them to play a meaningful role in the management of the region’s abundant natural resources. The new Chair will be President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola. The next summit meeting is scheduled for next October in Tanzania.

Background

SADC was established in August 1992 in Windhoek, Namibia, to replace the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC). It currently groups 14 member states; Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A free trade protocol was signed by the SADC countries in 1996.

According the SADC secretariat, Europe is SADC’s largest trading partner, with the top country destinations of SADC exports including the USA, UK, Japan, Italy and Germany. With the coming into effect of the US-Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), exports to the US have increased substantially. In recently-begun negotiations between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, SADC supports a unified ACP approach in negotiating new WTO-compatible Economic Partnership Agreements with the EU (see related In Brief, this issue).

In related news, Ablasse Ouedraogo, the first African WTO Deputy Director-General (DDG), who recently ended his three-year DDG term of office, stated on 3 October that, "African countries must stand together and closely follow developments at the WTO to better defend their interests." He noted that while developing countries currently make up 80 percent of the WTO membership, they account for less than 27 percent of global trade.

To access the SADC Summit final Communiqué, visit http://www.sadc.int/english/news/comm10_07102002.html.

"2002 SADC Summit Final Communiqué" SADC Secretariat website, http://www.sadc.int 4 October; "Africa must better defend interests at WTO," BUSINESS REPORT, 3 October.