02 Jul 2018

President Mokgweetsi Masisi has reaffirmed the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) member states’ commitment to support the incoming chairperson.

Botswana has, during the SACU summit that was held recently, handed over the chairmanship to Lesotho’s Dr Thomas Thabane as Mr Masisi’s tenure as chairperson ends mid July.

“I congratulate in advance the incoming chairperson of the SACU summit, Dr Thomas Thabane and the people of Lesotho who will assume this important role at the end of my term,” President Masisi said.

Closing the sixth SACU Heads of State and Government Summit that was held in Gaborone on June 29, President Masisi said member states would continue to avail themselves in facilitating the SACU agenda at the level of the summit, council of ministers, SACU Commission and all other technical committees.

He said the sixth summit discussions were fruitful and showed commitment to delivering concrete and meaningful results.

Mr Masisi said the sixth SACU summit noted progress made to date on the implementation of the work programme that entailed development of public policy interventions to promote industrial development and value chains, review of revenue sharing formula and establishment of stabilisation fund among other initiatives.

He further said the summit considered the report of the SACU Council of Ministers on progress made towards the implementation of the ministerial work programme and received reports on developments relating to the on-going trade negotiations in which member states were involved.

Again, he said the summit appreciated the update on the trade negotiations agenda and noted the scope and objectives of the on-going trade negotiations aimed at improving market access opportunities for member states products.

Notwithstanding, he said more work was required in some areas such as review and development of a suitable architecture for tariff-setting, rebates, duty drawbacks and trade remedies, as well as the trade facilitation work-stream.

“We have therefore directed the council of ministers to ensure that work was expeditiously undertaken, through the respective ministerial task teams on finance and on trade and industry,” he noted. ENDS